As I said in my introduction, I am the president of the National Capital Chapter of the 101st Airborne Division Association. Part of what our Chapter does is to administer events on behalf of the 101st National Association at Arlington National Cemetery.
So toady we road tripped it up to North of Baltimore today to pick up Richard Reeve, his two sons, and trucked them down to Arlington National Cemetery to do a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns, and then another wreath laying at General Anthony “Nuts” McAuliffe grave. Richard is 93 and served with the Screaming Eagles from Normandy all the way to Bastogne. Told us he had to sleep in a chicken coop in Bastogne cause it was the warmest place he could find. He was an officer and knew General McAuliffe personally. He said that boy was a tough old coot.
Today was his first time visiting Arlington. It was very emotional for him. He said "you mean to tell me there's a body under every one of those stones?" He had trouble grasping the sheer size of the place. He also said this was the last time he would see it while standing on his own two feet. He fully expects to be in section 60.
This was a historic wreath laying because as far as we can tell from our records Richard is the last Screaming Eagle to have personally known and served with General McAuliffe at Bastogne.
We had a professional photographer there but I haven't gotten those pics back yet (I'll post em when I do), so here are a few that Cindi and the little one took.
Oh and the reason the wreaths are laying flat instead of standing up is because we had 50mph wind gusts today.
I'm the fat guy on the left with the gray beard in case you're wondering.