Laying a Wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, by Sam Fischer

Yesterday our class went to Arlington National Cemetery where Duncan, Mathias, and I were the lucky three that were chosen to lay the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I have had the jitters about this for the past couple of weeks, so when we arrived at the cemetery, I could feel my heart start beating faster. When we three arrived at the marble structure located directly up the steps from the Tomb of the Unknowns, we all felt extremely light headed and a little sick to our stomachs. We stood at the top of the marble steps and waited for the host to come up and give us directions on how to lay the wreath. Fifteen minutes later, three guards were now in the march on the black mats, making perfect copies of their previous step every time. Then they all went to the side of the tomb except for one who stood staring at us from the base of the steps with his tinted glasses, Marine uniform and big, shiny sidearm. Then, moments later, a solemn, eerie, blue figure approached us, ascending the stairs. His tinted glasses allowed us to see our own faces clearly and especially my terrified, pale white face. He now stood right in front of us staring us down, but to my relief we were greeted with a smile and a “Hey guys, how’s it going?” we replied with a shaky “good.” He then gave us our directions on how to respectfully place the wreath, so we followed him on his right side and a very serious figure, a Marine, waited for us with a wonderful smelling flower covered wreath. Mathias, Duncan, and I all took hold of the wreath and placed it upon the white stand and placed our hands over our hearts as we listened to another sentinel played Taps. When Taps was over we turned around and met the host at his side and ascended the stairs. At the top again, the guard, Jason, shook our hands, said we did a good job (because we “didn’t fall down the stairs”) and asked us where we were from and we replied we were from Washington State. He said he was from Oregon and to say hello to the Pacific Northwest for him. He went back to his duty and we finished our walk at Arlington. So, from all of us and Sentinel Jason, “Hello to the Pacific Northwest.”