{"id":3731,"date":"2012-09-12T13:50:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T13:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=3731"},"modified":"2012-09-12T13:55:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T13:55:54","slug":"pilgrimage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/pilgrimage\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"(Viewing the 9\/11 Memorial from the perspective of LCDR Otis “Vince” Tolbert’s grave. Photo Socotra, 9\/11\/12).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I waited until the actual minute of the impact that Flight 77 hit the building had passed. Then I gathered my crap together for the day and drove over to Ft Myer, which nestles around the west side of Arlington Cemetery like the fat on a kidney.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I stopped at the Commissary to get African Violets, one bunch each for Dan and Vince. Then I drove over to the back gate of the cemetery, showed my Arlington pass to the guard, and drove the silver Panzer slowly down the hill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Approaching Pershing Drive, I saw a white sedan with blue lights flashing, blocking the way ahead. Another white sedan approached from the right, and turned towards me, slowed down and stopped, driver’s window to window. I was prepared for a brusque direction from the Secret Service to “halt” and wait until the important people had moved on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Looking for the exit?” said the nice man with the short hair and neatly-knotted plain tie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Nope,” I said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Going to visit?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Yes, Sir.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Which section?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I put my hands out the driver’s side window and shrugged. “What day is it?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man nodded. “Section 60,” he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“I am happy to wait outside the security perimeter,” I said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“He is done with that,” said the man, courteously. “If you turn right and head toward the fence, you may be able to get to the 9\/11 section that way.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Thanks,” I said. The man was very nice and very professional. I thought he might have been in his early thirties- he would have been a teenager back on The Day, and this is the only way he could imagine the anniversary and the endless war. The man waved me on, and I turned right and drove slowly toward the maintenance complex on the edge of the cemetery. Then I turned left until I could see the knob of the memorial, and the somber line of graves in its shadow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I got there and there was one other couple decorating a grave. The wreaths had been placed on the pentagonal granite common memorial to all those who died. Then I walked down the first row of stones, and placed flowers with Dan and then Vice. It was a lovely morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just like the one when the world changed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Viewing the 9\/11 Memorial from the perspective of LCDR Otis “Vince” Tolbert’s grave. Photo Socotra, 9\/11\/12).   I waited until the actual minute of the impact that Flight 77 hit the building had passed. Then I gathered my crap together for the day and drove over to Ft Myer, which nestles around the west side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3733,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions\/3733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}