Gettysburg: Trip Down Memory Lane

In case you haven't heard, it's hot on the east coast. Believe it or not, it gets hot every year in various locations around the United States. As a kid growing up in Oklahoma, I do seem to remember the heat index getting above 100 degrees and it didn't make national news. I suppose since the majority of the "major" news organizations are based on the east coast, you get to hear about how awful my living conditions are when I'm not in an air conditioned building. Maybe you folks in fly-over country will get a reprieve from "heating-oil" cost stories this winter? Here's a great video on CNN in case you missed this big story.

My disclaimer is this. I wasn't even born in 1863. These aren't my memories. I can't even bring you a first hand account of the battle.....it was in 1863. What I can give you is my auto-tour first hand account of the battlefield from the comfort of my air conditioned car. On a whim, Fardette and I decided to make the hour-and-a-half trek up to Gettysburg, PA. This little piece of Americana hosted a pretty important battle during the Civil War. Wikipedia has quite a bit of information about the battle in the Battle of Gettysburg article. We didn't stick around the brand new visitors center because it was very sterile and commercial. They have a museum in the visitors center, but the authentic yuppie traveler in me couldn't stomach it.

Side note: I define authentic traveler as wanting to get the "true cultural experience" when I travel. An example would be taking an tour of an indigenous village in Oxacha when visiting Mexico. A authentic yuppie traveler chooses this particular tour because some of the tour fee goes towards the residents of the village. The authentic yuppie traveler also buys more than one of the homemade floor mats from the villagers made by the villagers. I'm not calling anyone out in particular, but the photo to the right is an awesome mat made by the villagers of Santa Anita, Oxacha, Mexico.

The Gettysburg battle site has monuments to just about every single unit that fought. There seem to be monuments for every state that contributed forces to the battle. We're talking about monuments to soldiers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Maine, New York, etc. Some of them were very big and others were more subtle, like the monument to the Tenacious 20th of Maine. I took a ton of guy photos. I don't have one shot of Fardette or myself looking at a monument. If you need to see us together, you can see us here.

One of the more interesting moments was when we saw a reenacter set up near the Pennsylvania Monument. He had an authentic campfire and shelter half set-up. He was burning up too because he was in some wool pants and the air was oppressively hot this past Saturday.

The section I appreciated the most was the Gettysburg Cemetery. They have a Soldiers' Monument with an eagle that has stars that represent the 35 states of the union on the day of the dedication of the cemetery. I loved how Lincoln insisted the states didn't cede; however, the cemetery only had states that fought for the union. The Confederate soldiers were buried on the battlefield and dug up from 1870 to 1873 and buried in various places in the South. (all that was from wikipedia, my DINFOS instructors would not be pleased). I also enjoy seeing how Americans pay homage to their war dead and veterans in our national cemeteries. One of the things I look for are the graves of the unknown. This Cemetery had 979 markers for unknown soldiers. This doesn't include the unknown markers in each state's section. They weren't able to figure out what state they were from at the very least. Unknown graves fascinate me. Every military cemetery I visit, I look for their graves. Punchbowl in Hawaii has at least 70. Arlington National Cemetery has the ultimate monument. These servicemen died for their country and the only way we can honor them is to remember they existed and fought for the United States of America. The sick part of me likes to see where I'll be buried some day. That's probably weird, but it keeps me honest when I think i'm the best soldier there ever has been and then I see rows upon rows of gravemarkers telling me that i'm not even close to measuring up. I like to remember that because it makes me try to be a better soldier.

Leslie and I have been away for two-and-a-half months now. It's been pretty eye-opening and tough. I do think it's made our relationship stronger by keeping us focused on what's important. Even though I make her FRUSTRATED when I try and get her to fix the internet over the phone. I also glad I've had these three months of active duty time. Even though it's fake TRADOC active duty time. This has been good soldier time that I don't get once a month. My roommate, Pete (not Peter), keeps me pretty honest when it comes to my standards. There are several guys here that motivate me to become a better soldier and want to be an NCO.

I'm going to the Army Ball this weekend. The Army's birthday is June 14th, 1775. We'll be 233 years old, and we'll always be about 5 months older than the Marine Corps.

I'm not going to do the embeded slideshow because I've gotten reports of messing up some computers.

Here's the gettysburg slideshow on flickr
I got some cool crosses there too, here

Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery Photos