ARLINGTON CEMETERY
 
Jeopardy Question:
 
On Jeopardy the other night, the final question was "How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns?"
All three contestants missed it!   
This is really an awesome sight to watch if you've never had the chance Fascinating. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
 
1.
How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
21 steps:  It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.
 
2.
How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?
21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1.

3.
Why are his gloves wet?
His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.
 
4.
Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and, if not, why not?
He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
 
5.
How often are the guards changed?
Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

6.
What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?
For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30.

They
must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb,
live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot
drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of
their lives. They cannot swear in public for the
rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the
uniform or the tomb in any way.

After
two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that
is worn on
their lapel signifying they
served as guard of the tomb. There are only
400 presently worn. The guard must obey
these rules for the rest of their
lives or
give up the wreath pin.

The
shoes are specially made with very thick soles
to keep the heat and cold from their feet.
There are metal heel plates that extend to
the top
of the shoe in order to make the loud click as
they come
to a halt.
 
There are no
wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards
dress for duty
in front of a full-length
mirror.
 
The first six months of duty a
guard cannot talk to anyone nor
watch TV.
All off duty time is spent studying the 175
notable people laid
to rest in
Arlington National Cemetery.
A guard must memorize who they are and where
they are interred. Among the notables are:
 
President Taft,
Joe Lewis {the boxer}
Medal of Honor winner Audie L. Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.
ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.
 
In
2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was
approaching Washington,
DC, our
US Senate/House took 2 days
off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC
evening news, it was reported that because of
the dangers from the
hurricane, the military
members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb
of
the Unknown Soldier were given permission
to suspend the assignment. They
respectfully declined the offer, "No way,
Sir!" Soaked to the skin,
marching in the
pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that
guarding
the Tomb was not just an assignment,
it was the highest honor that can be
afforded
to a service person. The tomb has been patrolled
continuously,
24/7, since 1930.

God Bless and keep them.

GOD BLESS AMERICA
THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE WHO KEEP IT THAT WAY!

Reliques

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW THIS LITTLE TIDBIT OF
WONDERFUL TRIVIA..............
             ON JULY 20, 1969, AS COMMANDER OF THE APOLLO 11 LUNAR
MODULE, NEIL ARMSTRONG WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO SET FOOT ON THE MOON.
             HIS FIRST WORDS AFTER STEPPING ON THE MOON,
             "THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR
MANKIND," WERE TELEVISED TO EARTH AND HEARD BY MILLIONS.
             BUT, JUST BEFORE HE RE-ENTERED THE LANDER, HE MADE THE
ENIGMATIC REMARK "GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY."
             MANY PEOPLE AT NASA THOUGHT IT WAS A CASUAL REMARK
CONCERNING SOME RIVAL SOVIET COSMONAUT.
             HOWEVER, UPON CHECKING, THERE WAS NO GORSKY IN EITHER
THE RUSSIAN OR AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAMS.

             OVER THE YEARS, MANY PEOPLE QUESTIONED ARMSTRONG AS TO
WHAT THE 'GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY' STATEMENT MEANT, BUT ARMSTRONG ALWAYS
JUST SMILED.

             ON JULY 5, 1995, IN TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA, WHILE ANSWERING
QUESTIONS FOLLOWING A SPEECH, A REPORTER BROUGHT UP THE 26-YEAR-OLD
QUESTION ABOUT MR.GORSKY AND
             THIS TIME HE FINALLY RESPONDED BECAUSE HIS MR. GORSKY
HAD JUST DIED, SO NEIL ARMSTRONG FELT HE COULD NOW ANSWER THE
QUESTION.
             HERE IS THE ANSWER TO
             "WHO WAS MR. GORSKY?":
             IN 1938, WHEN HE WAS A KID IN A SMALL MID-WESTERN TOWN,
HE WAS PLAYING BASEBALL WITH A FRIEND IN THE BACKYARD.
             HIS FRIEND HIT THE BALL, WHICH LANDED IN HIS NEIGHBOR'S
YARD BY THEIR BEDROOM WINDOW.
             HIS NEIGHBORS WERE MR. AND MRS. GORSKY.
             AS HE LEANED DOWN TO PICK UP THE BALL, YOUNG ARMSTRONG
HEARD MRS. GORSKY SHOUTING AT
             MR. GORSKY,
             "SEX! YOU WANT SEX?! YOU'LL GET SEX WHEN THE KID NEXT
DOOR WALKS ON THE MOON!"
             It broke the place up.
             NEIL ARMSTRONG'S FAMILY CONFIRMED THAT
             THIS IS A TRUE STORY.

Happy 4th of July! these are the heroes that enable us to live in such a great country.

The Navy way!

Mike Monsoor, Was Awarded "The Congressional Medal Of Honor" Last Week,
For Giving His Life In Iraq, As He Jumped On, And Covered With His Body, A Live Hand Grenade,
Saving The Lives Of A Large Group Of Navy Seals That Was Passing By!

~

During Mike Monsoor's Funeral,

At Ft.RosecransNationalCemetery, In San Diego , California ..

The Six Pallbearers Removed The Rosewood Casket From The Hearse,

And Lined Up On Each Side Of Mike Monsoor's Casket,

Were His Family Members, Friends, Fellow Sailors, And Well-wishers.

The Column Of People Continued From The Hearse, All The Way To The
Grave Site.

What The Group Didn't Know At The Time Was,

Every Navy Seal

(45 To Be Exact)
That Mike Monsoor Saved That Day Was Scattered Through-Out The Column!

As The Pallbearers Carried The Rosewood Casket

Down The Column Of People To The Grave Side.

The Column Would Collapse.

Which Formed A Group Of People That Followed Behind.

Every Time The Rosewood Casket Passed A Navy Seal,

He Would Remove His Gold Trident Pin From His Uniform,

And Slap It Down Hard,

Causing The Gold Trident Pin To Embed Itself

Into The Top Of The Wooden Casket!

Then The Navy Seal Would Step Back From The Column, And Salute!

Now For Those,

Who Don't Know What A Trident Pin Is,

Here Is The Definition!

After One Completes The Basic Navy Seals Program Which Lasts For Three
Weeks,
And Is Followed By Seal Qualification Training,
Which Is 15 More Weeks Of Training,
Necessary To Continue Improving Basic Skills And To Learn New Tactics
And Techniques,
Required For An Assignment To A Navy Seal Platoon.
After successful completion,
Trainees Are Given Their Naval Enlisted Code,
And Are Awarded The Navy Seal Trident Pin.
With This Gold Pin They Are Now Officially Navy Seals!

It Was Said,

That You Could Hear Each Of The 45 Slaps >From Across The Cemetery!
By The Time The Rosewood Casket Reached The Grave Site,
It Looked As Though It Had A Gold Inlay From The 45 Trident Pins That
Lined The Top!

This Was A Fitting End To An Eternal Send-Off For A Warrior Hero!

This Should Be Front-Page News!

Instead Of The Garbage We Listen To And See Every Day.

Returning to the water to unite our region

Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality - A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies

Elizabeth Warren Came Up With An Insane Idea That Would Destroy America

League of Their Own Former Player

Children of (1930s) & (1940s)

Born in the 1930s and early 40s, we exist as a very special age. We are the Silent Generation.
We are the smallest number of children born since the early 1900s. We are the "last ones."
 
We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
 
We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.
 We hand mixed ’white stuff’ with ‘yellow stuff’ to make fake butter.
 
We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available.  We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the “milk box” on the porch. [A friend’s mother delivered milk in a horse drawn cart.] We sometimes fed the horse.
 
We are the last to hear Roosevelt's radio assurances and to see gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors.
 
We can also remember the parades on August 15, 1945; VJ Day.
 
We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their Cape Cod style houses, pouring the cellar, tar papering it over and living there until they could afford the time and money to build it out.
 
We remember trying to buy a new car after the war. The new cars were coming through with wooden bumpers.
 
We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead we imagined what we heard on the radio.
 
As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside until the street lights came on."  We did play outside and we did play on our own. There was no little league.  There was no city playground for kids.
 
To play in the water, we turned the fire hydrants on and ran through the spray.
 
The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.
 
Our Saturday afternoons, if at the movies, gave us newsreels of the war sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.
 
Telephones were one to a house, often party-lined and hung on the wall.
 
Computers were called calculators, which only added and were hand cranked; typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. The ‘internet’ and ‘GOOGLE’ were words that didn’t exist.
 
We are the last group who had to find out for ourselves  As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth.
 
The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.
VA loans fanned a housing boom. Pent-up demand coupled with new installment payment plans put factories to work.  New highways would bring jobs and mobility. The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.
 
In the late 40's and early 50's the country seemed to lie in the embrace of brisk, but quiet, order as it gave birth to its new middle class (which became known as ‘Baby Boomers’).
 
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands of stations.  The telephone started to become a common method of communications and "Faxes" sent hard copy around the world.
 
Our parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.  We weren't neglected but we weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
 
They were glad we played by ourselves 'until the street lights came on.'  They were busy discovering the post war world.
 
Most of us had no life plan, but with the unexpected virtue of ignorance and an economic rising tide we simply stepped into the world and started to find out what the world was about.
 
We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed.
 
Based on our naïve belief that there was more where this came from, we shaped life as we went.
 
We enjoyed a luxury; we felt secure in our future.
 
Of course, just as today, not all Americans shared in this experience. Depression poverty was deep rooted.  Polio was still a crippler.  The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks.
 
Russia built the “Iron Curtain” and China became Red China.  Eisenhower sent the first 'advisors' to Vietnam ; and years later, Johnson invented a war there.  Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.
 
We are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no existential threats to our homeland.
 
We came of age in the 40s and early 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, Martin Luther King, civil rights, technological upheaval, “global warming”, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with insistent unease.
 
Only our generation can remember both a time of apocalyptic war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. We have lived through both.
 
We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better, not worse.
 
We are the Silent Generation - "The Last Ones".
 
More than 99.9% of us are either retired or deceased, and feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times”.

Extra-virgin olive oil preserves memory and protects brain against Alzheimer's disease, new research at Temple shows

Trumps Attacks Morning Joe Hosts Defenders

RESPONSE To Muslim Confusion

Pilot's response to a Muslim doctor's complaint! Very well said and worth reading!
This is, unfortunately true for most of us.
 
Read to the bottom, there also are a Canadian, British and Australian response.
 
To me it makes a lot of sense, and would make for a better understanding between the different faiths.
 
Please share with your Muslim friends!
 
No name calling, no hatred, no political agenda
 
CANADIAN COMMENT APPEARS AT THE END OF THE
ARTICLE AND IS MEANINGFUL.
THERE IS ALSO SOME RECENTLY ADDED BRITISH COMMENT.
 
This pilot hit the nail right on the head in his open letter.
 
A newspaper stated that some Muslim doctor is saying we are profiling him because he has been checked three times while getting on an airplane.  The following is a letter from a pilot.  This well - spoken man, who is a pilot with American Airlines, says what is in his heart, beautifully.
 
YOU WORRY ME!
By Captain John Maniscalco, American Airlines Pilot
 
I've been trying to say this since 911, but you worry me  I wish you didn't.  I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country.  But you don't blend in anymore.  I notice you, and it worries me.
 
I notice you because I can't help it anymore.  People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now.
I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.
 
On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country.  They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others, hacking their necks, over and over, with box cutters.  They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings, killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.
 
The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world.  So, I notice you now. I don't want to be worried.
I don't want to be consumed by the same rage, hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists.  But I need your help.  As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.
 
How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Americans and the Arab/Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter MORE of the same good neighbors and children?
 
The events of September 11 changed the answer..  It is not MY responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults.  It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.
 
I want to know, I DEMAND to know and I have a right to know, whether or not you love America .....  Do you pledge allegiance to its flag?  Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car?  Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation; that He will protect it and let it prosper?  Or do you pray that Allah will destroy it in one of your Jihads?  Are you thankful for the freedom that this nation affords?  A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots, who have through our history, given their lives for this country?  Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate sacrifice?  Do you love America??  If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.
 
Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions YOU are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America.  Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent, because I worry about who you regard as innocent.  No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks, because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy; I am interested only in action.  What will you do for America - our great country - at this time of continuing crisis, at this time of war?
 
I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets.  I want to hear you chanting 'Allah Bless America'.  I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military.  I want to see a commitment of money, time and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to our returning wounded and to this nation as a whole.
 
The FBI has had a long list of people they’ve wanted to interact with regarding the threats that they believe to be ongoing. Many of these people live and socialize right now in Muslim communities.  You know them.  You know where they are.  Give the FBI a heads up as to where they may be.  Better yet, hand them over to us, NOW!  But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action.  Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter.  You have disappeared from the streets.  You have posted armed security guards at your facilities.  You have threatened lawsuits.  You have screamed for protection from reprisals.
 
The very few Arab/Muslim representatives, like CARE, that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating.  They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States apologize and take responsibility for actions defending our own people.  They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing 'leaders' like the late Khadafi, the late Hussein, Farrakhan, and the late Arafat.
 
If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up.  What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, pure, and true, when your 'leaders' ARE teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance?  It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion.  A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again.  A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide.  A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world.
 
A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air.  A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth.  A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.
 
We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us -- our rights under the greatest constitution in the world.  I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to DEMAND it.  A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family.
 
I am pleading with you to let me know.  I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American..... But there can be no grey areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance, and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand.  Until then, "YOU WORRY ME!"
 
CANADIAN COMMENTS:
 
I totally agree with this sentiment.  I hope you will forget all about the 'political correctness' mandate we've had rammed down our throats by so many on the left, and see if this doesn't ring true in your heart and mind.  For Canada, with all the multiculturalism we've been told is so important...why should we not, as Canadians, expect that the millions of new people immigrating to our country will show their love for our country, their allegiance to our country, their willingness to obey the laws of our country, and acceptance that we are a Christian country?  Just because they are able to enjoy exercising their own religion, they should NOT expect us to be ashamed of ours.  They knew Canada was a Christian country when they came here.  Why are we erasing Christianity because immigrants who are unwilling to adopt our way of life expect us to?  There is just too much insanity in the world, and we have to start taking a stand.
 
I hope you will forward this, so that others will feel they are not alone if they are starting to feel the same.
 
BRITISH COMMENTS:  At last a clear non-racist example of the concerns that the vast majority of our Nations population probably share.  The pilot's letter encapsulates all that is fair and just about national pride and protection of one's national culture.  I fear it may be too late here in UK, BUT we too want our country back in the form that attracted all these different cultures to come here in the first place!!  In all our conversations with a wide range of friends and acquaintances we have not met one that disagrees with our own views.
 
If only we all had the courage of our convictions to pass this on, it is a statement that should be accepted as the heart-felt feelings of someone with honest commendable national pride.
 
Not all Muslims are terrorists but almost all terrorists to date have been Muslims.  Stand up and be counted!
 
Australian Comment:   Best email I have had in years it needs to be in every paper every day until we get some answers.  We need all be very concerned, note the pattern in Australia is the same for the other countries above.  Where are the believers of Islam in our beloved country standing up and being counted in all these issues?
 
I have not seen one!