june...the only month between us and july!

once again, june was a pretty normal month...i really don't remember much about june except that i spent a lot of time it. since i'm in a hurry to get to july, i'm only going to show one particular memory. 

arlington national cemetery 

as part of "work" we took a trip to arlington to visit the cemetery, see the tomb of the unknown soldier, and check out the changing of the guard. i've seen it once but going this time was much different...and cooler. being in uniform we decided to try and get an inside tour and asked the SGT of the guard who took us into their little room under the tomb plaza and acted as our personal tour guide for over an hour. here's a few fun facts for you on the
"sentinels" of the old guard.
*it takes between 6 months and a year to earn your badge as a sentinel
*there have been fewer than 550 sentinels since WW1 (fewest awarded second only to the u.s. army astronaut badge)
becoming a sentinel requires you to
*memorize and recite 18 pages of written cemetery knowlege (without missing a word)
*memorize and write 19 pages of knowledge (without missing a work, punctuation mark, or capital letter, etc...)
*a near impossible uniform inspection
*countless flawless walks at night and in horrible weather before you can walk a day shift
*memorize where hundreds of important people and tombs are within the cemetery
*the scabbards start as plastic olive drab and the pistol holsters start brown leather...both are shined with, on average, 10 cans of spray paint and buffed out until they are like metallic car paint that shows your reflection. same with the shoes, which are also buffed between each walk. 

a 3rd army sentinel. the number 21 dates back to old wars (revolutionary maybe?) where
each army would agree to cease combat to clear the battlefield of the dead and wounded.
after they were done, one side would signal with a 21 gun volley. the opposing army
would signal back with a second 21 gun volley and both sides would get back to it...
21 became the number known as the highest honor to the dead soldiers.


the soldier will walk the strip in 21 steps, pauses are 21 seconds... its pretty cool

i just really like this shot. 

if you've never even heard of this whole thing, here's a little video of what happens. 

 

and here's a video of what happens when you do something wrong. 

i just thought these were interesting.

this is a tomb of the unknown for a british soldier in india

this is the tomb of the unknown for a soldier from the
revolutionary war up in philly