For the past week, I’ve been in Washington D.C. attending a conference for my church. I’m not going to go into specifics about the conference, other than it’s broadened my view on my faith, because this post isn’t about that.
While walking around the National Mall with my group, we decided to take the Metro into the Arlington National Cemetery.
It was late in the evening and the trams were shutdown, so we decided to walk. As we slowly made the mile walk, to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, I really wanted to turn around go back, but something was still pushing me up the last hill. We made it to the building and then came around the corner to see the three tombs and the Honor Guard soldier.
We sat on the steps for about ten minutes and were about to leave, until we saw another soldier come out. He walked out to the middle of the tombs as another Guard walked out. He asked us all to stand and explained to us what was going on.
It was the changing of the guard. I wish I could explain to you the intricately precise movements that all three of them were making. Without saying a word, when one moved, the other moved. I tried taking photographs, but it got to the point that I was just watching through my eyepiece, rather than pushing the shutter button.
The process took about ten minutes and it was the most mesmerizing ten minutes I have ever experienced in my life. These few photos are the only photos that I was able to get since I was so dumbfounded. It turns out that it was the last guard change (that the public could see) for the day. Stroke of luck? Hard to believe.
If you are ever visiting D.C. and are planning on going to the Cemetery, I highly suggest you do some research into when they conduct guard changes. I can write all about it here, but you really have to see it for yourself.