How many of you have visited JFK's grave site in Arlington?

[Elwood P Dowd]

When I lived in Arlington (1970-72 ), I visited several times. It became depressing to me because I would think about who was in the White House at that time (Nixon) and what might have been had Jack and Bobby lived. I am sure being a draftee in the Army and thinking about what our country was going through those years just made it worse.

Anyway, how many of you have visited there, and is it still pretty much the same as back then? Do you also become depressed just thinking about what might have been?

[RKP5637]

1. I did, just after he was placed there, I never went back again, I found it depressing thinking

about how highly I thought of him and what might have been.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. I've been all over the U.S. and around the world

but never been to D.C.

[grasswire]

6. well, why not?

I realize it's a ways from where you are now. But you oughta go.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

12. hahha. it's on my to do list. I'm just the type who'd rather

go to New York than D.C. or go to Shanghai rather than Beijing. I went to capitals of other countries like London, Paris, and Rome but that's because those also happen to be the business, cultural, and historic centers of the countries--not just the capital.

Anyway, I know there are a ton of monuments and museums I'd love to go see, so I will make it there at some point.

[Trajan]

20. In all fairness - DC is a world cultural center

While NYC is my favorite place in the whole wide world, it is a different kind of cultural milieu - Washington DC is a central locale of world political culture, like Rome and Athens, etc ...

The Smithsonian Museums ( that is plural ) alone is worth the trip ... It should be worth an at least once in your life visit ... I highly recommend it ... especially the gravesite of JFK

[Pretzel_Warrior]

43. I'd like to go when my son is old enough to enjoy

He'll be 2 in March. I guess business could take me there before then. But I agree. I want to do a Colonial Williamsburg through DC, mid-Atlantic train trip and stop along the way.

[msanthrope]

35. Oh--the museums....truly, unlike anything in the world. nt

[City Lights]

3. Me. As a child and an adult. nt

[DinahMoeHum]

31. Same thing here.

[Agschmid]

4. I have, about 10 years ago.

[grasswire]

5. yes

several times

[maryellen99]

7. I went when I was 15 on a class trip back in 1986 nt

[Chan790]

8. I've been.

I have no idea what it was like then, I was born in the Carter administration...by a whole 25 days before Reagan took office.

I can't become depressed about what I have no concept of...there has never been a president in my lifetime as liberal as JFK and LBJ or RFK and MLK Jr. for that matter.

Everybody always ponders an RFK presidency...the one that intrigues me more is a still-prominent registered-Republican MLK Jr. in the 1980 GOP primary. I think he'd have won, it'd have been his for the taking and the Reagan (Buckley/Goldwater/Bush) iteration of modern conservatism would have been dead, the course of future-past altered immensely. (Now that, I'm sure, depresses everyone.)

[DUgosh]

9. Yes

In 66 and 96

[pangaia]

10. I went to his funeral. I was in college at the time.

Several years later-- in 1969. I went to D.C to audition for several of the service bands in case my draft # got close, and did go to Arlington.

[Elwood P Dowd]

14. So the lottery didn't get you?

Don't know why I didn't get drafted right after college when my deferment ran out, but I made it somehow until the lottery went in effect. Had a medium number that gave me about a 50% chance to miss the draft, but they got me much sooner than I expected. I was one of the oldest in my basic training company.

[pangaia]

30. I was teaching at a university music school.

My student deferment ran out in the fall of 1967 after grad school.

As I remember it, my lottery number was something like 320 or higher. I would turn 26 in early November 1969 and they were drafting 19 year olds and 26 year olds in 1969, and the numbers were getting higher and higher. If I could make it to Jan 1, 1970 I would be safe... not sure I have that all exactly right, but that's close.

So just in case, I set up auditions with three of the DC service bands.
Army Band, Marine Band and Navy Band. I passed the audition in one of them and for the life of me I can't remember which one it was. Maybe I even got into two of them. Anyway, I made it to Jan 1 and told them I changed my mind.
Hope your experience wasn't too bad.

[texanwitch]

11. I did when I was in the army.

Went with a friend whose Father was buried there.

It was a beautiful day also sad.

[Marrah_G]

13. I have not

I was born 7 years after he died so I don't have that emotional connection.

[CherokeeDem]

15. A few times...

unfortunately was in DC after Teddy died but did not make it to Arlington on that trip. I want to return to pay my respects to him as well.

I have to admit to being very moved not only by JFK's grave, and the eternal flame, but Robert was my hero and I was very upset as we walked to his grave the first time. The setting is beautiful and very moving... it didn't change over the years since I first visited.

[RagAss]

16. 1966 - it was still in the temporary arrangement.

[MANative]

17. visited with my husband and parents on the day after Jackie was buried.

My dad, who had marched in JFK's inauguration as part of the National Guard contingent from Massachusetts, wept like a baby. First time I'd ever seen him cry. The only other times were when his brother died, and on the day he told us he'd been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Chokes me just to think about it.

[AndyA]

18. I visited JFK's grave site not long after 9/11

No one else was around except for the person I went with. It was a very moving experience, very peaceful, and it reminded me of what we'd lost as a country.

[Scuba]

19. I was when stationed at Andrews AFB in 1974 just before Nixon resigned. Took the family in the 80's.

"What might have been".

[PragmaticLiberal]

21. Probably been there about 8-9 times. I live in Maryland.

[Arugula Latte]

22. Yes. I lived in DC for awhile and went there a couple times.

Very moving, and, yes, depressing for "what might have been."

[MadrasT]

23. Don't know what it was like "back then"

but have been there 3 or 4 times.

It is depressing. I was born in the 60s under a cloud of what "might have been". My dad was very depressed about it, and RFK and MLK, well into the 70s.

There are framed pictures of 3 presidents in my home: Washington, Grant, and JFK. (Grant mostly because I am a civil war geek.)

[Trajan]

24. Yes .... We took a family trip to DC in 2003

The JFK Gravesite ( and Arlington National Cemetery ) were highlights of the trip ... it was quite emotional for me, as I remembered watching, as a seven year old in Northern New Jersey, as the eternal flame was first ignited ... It is a serene and peaceful place that represented what was lost on that awful day 50 years ago ...

[Blue_In_AK]

25. The Vietnam memorial was about as much regret as I could handle

when I was down there.

[MrScorpio]

26. I've been there, I used to live on Ft Myer

It's very pretty.

BTW, my great uncle, Joe Louis, is buried in Arlington. Right next to his grave is the grave of Lee Marvin.

[CFLDem]

27. 8th grade trip over a decade ago.

Simply beautiful and a great reminder of the price for our freedom.

[GP6971]

28. 4 times

A mandatory stop as well as the wall whenever I'm in DC.

[newfie11]

29. I have back in the 70's

I worked in the district then.

[Liberal_Dog]

32. We Visited In 1990

nt

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Yeah, but I was pretty young.

I did not really grok it.

[FLyellowdog]

34. I did while at Pres. Obama's Inaugration in January.

The visit to Arlington Cemetery as a whole made me cry. So many souls...

[life long demo]

36. I did, twice

Once in the 70's and once in the 80's

[lonestarnot]

37. Yes.

[ScreamingMeemie]

38. Went with my parents as a kid in 1976, with my high school choir in 1985, and with my

husband and children in 2002. It was right after 9/11. My daughter was in the Spelling Bee which took place Memorial Day week. What struck me was looking at his grave and being able to look over from Arlington to see the work being done to restore the Pentagon. That was the first time we actually took a guided tour and learned that JFK had stood on the Lee lawn and said it was the most beautiful view of DC...

[Elwood P Dowd]

39. The views from the Lee Mansion area are pretty incredible on a beautiful spring day.

The Pentagon was on the south side just across from Fort Myer. Every time I went in that place it gave me the creeps.

[nutsnberries]

40. i have, several times

most recently a few years ago. It always looks the same to me, and i'm always deeply moved and sad in my thoughts of what might have been.

[Myrina]

41. I have.

[TomClash]

42. More than once

I really dig the triple entendre of the eternal flame.

[tabbycat31]

44. I did in 8th grade (1994)

I was not around during his administration (my parents were in middle school when he was killed) but I was named after one of his children, so his presidency meant more to me at that time than most of my classmates.

I often wonder that had he lived, if we would have the horror show and dismantling of this country that Reagan planted the seeds for. (Disclaimer, I was a baby when Reagan was elected and I don't know life before him).

[aikoaiko]

45. NJ Boy Scout trips to DC.

[Motown_Johnny]

46. Twice. Just ~3 months ago and back in '73 when I was 10 n/t

[RFKHumphreyObama]

47. I have visited it on both trips I've made to the US

Always profoundly sad and moving

[narnian60]

48. Saw it for the first time earlier this month

during my first trip to D.C. I am 60 and rather ashamed it took me this long to travel to our nation's capital.

[JesterCS]

49. I went when I was still in school

mid to late 90s I think.

[pinboy3niner]

50. Multiple times

To visit the Kennedy gravesites and those of friends. My best friend was interred in the columbarium there after he committed suicide more than 20 years ago, and an Army roommate is buried there in Section 59, not far from the Kennedys...

[Are_grits_groceries]

51. I have visited several times.

Arlington National Cemetery and The Vietnam Veterans Memorial are two of the most melancholy places on Earth. I have visited The Wall a lot.

I lived near DC when the fight was on about building The Wall. I thought some people were going to have strokes when Maya Lin's design was chosen. She could see what most could not.

[kydo]

52. I went in 1993 but was there for RFK anniversary

We were stationed in Newport News VA, the hubby had duty that day. So I loaded my two kids (3 1/2 year old and 9 month) hooked up with my dad, who at the time worked in the DC area. And we attended the 25 Anniversary for RFK, which was in Arlington, we sat on the grass on a hill near both graves.

I found this article .....

RFK lauded, quoted 25 years later Mass at Arlington marks his death


June 07, 1993|By Newsday


ARLINGTON, Va. -- As about 18,000 people watched from the hillsides of Arlington National Cemetery, President Clinton late yesterday joined the family and close friends of Robert F. Kennedy in a graveside Mass on the 25th anniversary of the New York senator's death by assassination.

The president -- who for most of the tribute sat next to Robert Kennedy's widow, Ethel, while first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sat beside Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. -- lauded the slain leader as "a relentless searcher for change, for growth, for the potential of heart and mind that he sought for himself and that he demanded of others."

Rest of article: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-06-07/news/1993158153_1_robert-kennedy-edward-kennedy-president-kennedy

[Art_from_Ark]

53. I was there,

either in 1987 or 1988. It was a very sobering moment, to think about what might have been had he been allowed to live.

[Ninga]

54. One of the stops on our hop on hop off tour was the JFK grace site.

I completely was caught off guard.....and had no idea how close to the surface my feelings about him were...because as we approached the site..I burst into tears.

[SarasotaDem]

55. yes

5 years ago ..........

Cried at the grave site

[Paladin]

56. One time, not too long after Teddy Kennedy passed away.

I was very impressed by the serenity and simple elegance of the site. Genuinely moving.

[DiverDave]

57. It's a very peaceful place. We went at

Thanksgiving ( mistakenly thinking it would be deserted)...nope, 2nd busiest day of the year for going to the Smithsonian and seeing the sights around D.C.
It was PACKED.
But the JFK grave-site was busy, but quiet and very respectful.
Unlike the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor.
While the American parents let their disruptive sugar stuffed kids run around and scream and carry on, the Japanese visitors were praying and crying. Throwing lei's and flowers into the water.
I have never been so ashamed of being an American as I was that day.
I was just stunned that the little monsters were allowed to act in such a disrespectful manner, at that place.
I was literally sick to my stomach. It still upsets me now 22 years later.
It really was a sickening sight to see.

[llmart]

60. I experienced the same thing at the Pearl Harbor memorial.....

We were walking up to it and I saw several Japanese people standing in complete and utter silence reading the names. But the closer I got I saw the Americans who were just walking around chatting loudly and taking pictures of each other, many looking like they were just waiting to check it off their "tourist sites to see" list and move on. It really hit me about how uncivilized some Americans can be.

[llmart]

58. I have.

It's a very somber memorial to those of us who remember it happening. But then again, so is the Viet Nam wall.

[Sunlei]

59. I visited, also find it does depress.Even this 50 yr memorial, think about what might have been.

[Sunlei]

61. I'm happy President Obama took a lot of advice from the Kennedy family, including pet choice :)

[Glorfindel]

62. Yes, the first time when I was stationed at Fort Meade, MD, in early 1968

I found it sad, but not depressing. This was shortly before the nightmarish events of that year. I had survived a year in Vietnam and was optimistic about the future. I didn't visit again until 1997.

[Gemini Cat]

63. I lived in DC for several years.

I went a number of times.

[gopiscrap]

64. I have twice once in March of 1977

and then in 2009 I was assigned for work to go to DC (for a week) and took my family..We walked the route of the funeral procession on this beautiful crisp Sunday afternoon to Kennedy's grave...it gave me goose bumps thinking I was walking such a historic set of ground, specially since I had seen that route on tv so many times.

[Omaha Steve]

65. Our family went in the late 60's

The marine on duty had his hands full with me taking a picture. He kept telling me to wait until the end of the circle around the grave. I was so excited, I kept trying to take it from the beginning of the circle.

[Coyotl]

66. Yes, and, on the same day, I shook President Johnson's hand at the White House.

Johnson had the hugest hand I'd ever shaken.