2023 DC Trip, Day 12, Saturday, April 15th

2023 DC Trip, Day 12, Saturday, April 15^th – D.C. Monuments & Memorials

Today, we (my Academy squadron classmates) saw an aeronautical museum and several memorials. The first stop was the Pentagon 911 Memorial. The 184 benches each have a small pool of water underneath, and each bench has the name of one of the victims. The benched are aligned with the direction of impact and are arranged in columns by age of the victims. Here is a view:

From there, we went to the Air Force Monument. It has three curved stainless steel towers, reaching for the sky. A panel nearby lists campaigns that the U.S. Air Force and its predecessors (Army Air Forces, Army Air Corps, Signal Corps, etc,).

                                 From there, we visited the Marine Corp's Iwo Jima monument.

We took a long ride to the Udvar-Hazy Center, a huge hangar-like facility with dozens of aircraft from all areas. Some are parked and some hang from the ceiling. Aircraft there include the Enola Gay, an SST, a RS-71 Blackbird, WWI, WWII, Korean and Vietnam era craft, a space shuttle and more. One of my favorites is this Connie (Lockheed Constellation).

Back to Washington and the Vietnam Memorial – The Wall. As we walked between the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool en route, the sun shone on the Capitol Building.

                                              Here is the iconic statue before the wall.

I looked for two names on the wall. One was an Academy classmate from my squadron – I lived just down the hall from him for 4 years. Capt. Harley B. Hacket's F4 aircraft was shot down on July 24^th, 1968.

The other was my high school classmate, 1LT Douglas B. Fournet, US Army. KIA, A Shau Valley, May 4, 1968. His actions resulted in the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor.

Back at the hotel, I said goodbye to my classmates for this this year, came up to my room do write this and finish packing for an early departure. Tomorrow night I'll be in Kentucky, half-way home.