Travel to D.C. on Veteran’s Day

"No oppressed people will fight and endure as our fathers did without the promise of something better than a mere change of masters."
Abraham Lincoln, January, 1861

I lived just outside Washington D.C. for several years during the end of my husband’s Army career. Never did I tire of getting close to the nation’s capital to find the Washington Monument rising above the trees, or of walking different parts of the city (or the same) and being surrounded by such history.

It’s a humbling experience to study the monuments, especially the memorials to our armed forces. Regardless of the political arena present, past, or future, all Americans know (although maybe some knowledge isn’t as strong as it could be) that without our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardsmen we would no longer stand as a country.

Walk through Washington D.C., and you’ll be reminded of this over and over, in no small terms. You’ll also be reminded of the sacrifice that comes with freedom. From here, I’ll let photos we took through various trips into D.C. (and Arlington) tell the tale, along with a few favorite quotes. Mouse over the photos for the titles.

 

"Some people live an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference in the world.
Marines don't have that problem."
President Ronald Reagan

“We came American.
We shall remain American and go into battle with Old Glory over our heads.”
General John J. Pershing

“The man who will go where his colors will go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in a jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to Democratic America. He is the stuff of which legions are made.”
Lieutenant Colonel T.R. Fehrenbach, US Army

“Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.”
Abraham Lincoln

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
Thomas Jefferson

“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
General Douglas MacArthur

“Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.”
General Ulysses S. Grant

“We are going to have peace
even if we have to fight for it.”
General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of men better than himself."
                                                               John Stuart Mill

THANK YOU to all Veterans
past, present, and future.