Traveling with Jim and talking politics too - Arlington National Cemetery

I’ve been to Washington, District of Columbia before.  I always sought lodging out in Virginia near Arlington but I never actually visited the cemetery.  I almost didn’t do it again week before last when I was visiting the city.  I am very glad I pulled the trigger and spent the morning there this time. 

Walking up to Arlington Entrance from the Washington Metro Train

First I will say that some of the luster is missing from Arlington with the absence of my biggest heroes, Eisenhower, Grant, Sherman, Patton, Pershing and of course Robert E. Lee.  Nor is Thomas Stonewall Jackson laid to rest there.  They were all real heroes, real leaders, men of high integrity and honor. 

If we had even ONE such man in today’s government it would be wonderful instead of a pack of liars, Socialists and Communists!  But this day will not be spoiled by such thoughts.

The first soldier laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery was Pvt. William Christman, 21, of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry.  He was buried in a plot on Arlington’s northeast corner on May 13, 1864. He was a farmer and never knew a day of combat. He died of peritonitis just as thousands of others who would never fire a shot but pass to the scourge of disease. He was buried with no ceremony,  with no flags flying, no bugles playing and no family or chaplain to see him off.  Other Union soldiers too poor to be embalmed and sent home for burial and the indigent dead soon filled the Lower Cemetery.  “Lower” described both its physical and social status as it was across the way from a graveyard for slaves and freedmen.

Graves appear here from 1864 and the rows are deep

If you are going to Arlington I would suggest you have a plan.  I didn’t have a plan.  Once inside I got confused.  Should I take the shuttle with the herds of people being talked at from the front through a microphone?  Or should I look at the map, not one of my strong suites since the advent of GPS, and try to find the graves of interest? 

Here’s some advice…..take the shuttle…..I didn’t. 

You got your Eisenhower Lane but he ain’t there.  You got your Pershing Way but he ain’t there.  You got your Grant Parkway but he ain’t there.  Well you get the picture.  No one I wanted to see was there. 

Did I tell you that Robert E. Lee lived on what is Arlington National Cemetery for thirty years prior to the Civil War.  He was married to Mary Custis in the living room of the home looking out at the city of Washington below.  Inside the home you could sense the spirit of the man and to me is was an eerie feeling.  Few men were in effect traitors to their country yet so thoroughly respected by those on both sides of the conflict we call the Civil War.  Few men in world history had their reputation so thoroughly rehabilitated subsequent to the Civil War as the man who occupied this home that sits at the top of Arlington National Cemetery. 

Ironically Robert E. Lee’s home guards over the Kennedy graves

Having served in the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division myself, I was for sure going to see the grave of the Army’s most decorated soldier of World War II.  I grew up seeing him in the movies, mostly westerns, and of course his own life story, the movie “To Hell and Back.”  Of course I am talking about Audie Murphy.

Remember I told you I did not take the shuttle.  Big Mistake!  I used the time honored technique of “following the herd” and set off in search of Audie Murphy.  Well, the herd of course, wanted to see the people in American history I most hated; the Kennedy Clan.  Hey I have to throw some politics here somewhere! 

First that “Dirty Rat Fink” John F. Kennedy, who while fooling around with numerous woman not his wife in the White House, in order to save face at the “Bay of Pigs”, set us on a course to murder 58,282 American Soldiers in Vietnam, all for political reasons.  And of course against the advice of even FDR, he signed the executive order that allowed government workers to unionize, an action that is destroying the cities today.  I give him grudging credit for “The Cuban Missile Crisis” as he probably saved my life with his actions, but it is not enough to save him from my wrath.

Biggest crowds were around the Kennedy compound of graves – go figure!

I also was forced to see the grave of that “Craven Varlet” (probably too kind) Bobby Kennedy, who was the weasel behind these atrocious decisions, as he was the front-man for Jack while he was busy fooling around. There is Teddy, “the incredible drunk”, who murdered a woman driving drunk, by letting her drown, while he ran and hid for 12 hours, calling in his team to make up his story and planning the payoff to her parents. If that isn’t enough, here lies their father Joe, who sided with Hitler while Ambassador to England, and was asked by the Crown to leave the country.  Course he was fooling around with his Hollywood starlets as well in keeping with his status as an ex-bootlegger. It’s a mouthful to describe Kennedy indiscretions!  Oh yes, The liar Robert McNamara, Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense, was buried with them, the same one that cried on his death-bed, and admitted the lies of Vietnam in his parting book.  At least he was man enough to tell the truth at the end and not take it to his grave. 

Anyway, you get the picture, my feelings are that the Kennedy “seed” should have been expunged from the face of the earth” long ago.  Forgive me, I stole that line from the “Last of the Mohicans.”

Robert McNamara at least confessed to the obfuscations & deceptions concerning Vietnam

Back to 1864: 

One month subsequent to the burial of William Christman, the first to be buried at Arlington, Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, requested that the Lee land be permanently appropriated for the purpose of burying Civil War dead.  “The grounds about the Mansion are admirably adapted to such a use,” he wrote.  He further wanted to move all previous graves there from the lower hill up to the grounds surrounding the Lee home.  This was approved immediately by Secretary of War Staunton. Thus Arlington National Cemetery was formally established.

One has to feel sorry for Mary Custis Lee. Robert E. Lee never owned the property that is Arlington National Cemetery today.  It was owned by Mary’s father George Washington Parke Custis.  He was the grandson of Martha Washington and had been adopted by George Washington when the boys father died in 1781.  Mary’s father began building the Lee home in 1802 as Washington City was being built below.  Mary inherited the property when her father died.  Never-the-less, Lincoln, Sherman and many others in the north felt that Lee was a traitor as in any other traitor and it was right to steal his land (which was not his) as the “spoils of war.”

The 1,000 acres of Mary Custis Lee lands became the property of the United States Government!

The Robert E. Lee Gardens at his home in Arlington – this was his favorite spot for 30 years prior to the Civil War

Finally after walking what seemed like miles (should have taken the shuttle), I got closed to what I thought was the Audie Murphy gravesite.  Not quiet through.  Had to ask a gentleman sitting on the, you guessed it, park shuttle, who pointed out the general direction of the grave and stated it was under a large Oak Tree. 

A true American Hero – the most decorated soldier in World War II

Gotta say it:  A womanizing, plagiarizing Martin Luther King, a “Doctor” in name only as he didn’t earn the degree, has his own day, monuments and streets named after him, and world acclaim; true American heroes, Washington with no day in his honor, and the most decorated soldier in World War II, with only a simple slab of stone, as if he were one of the Civil War dead who never fired a shot.

Somehow our priorities are…………..

I left Arlington happy.  You will too.  I saw the grave of a true hero, no matter how simple, and knew that no matter how simple, it is one of the most visited in the park.  Audie Murphy deserves that. 

I found this at the American History Museum on the Mall

I left Arlington with a few tears streaming down my face as I arrived at the Metro to ride down to the city so filled with bloated government and corruption today.  But I had a sense of pride that so many gave so much for our great country.  Though many of my childhood heroes were not here, with a few exceptions, everyone here is a hero.  I truly believe that.

Go see Arlington, you will not be sorry.

Washington D.C. from the Lee home in Arlington

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