Col. Jack Mosher and Maj. Herbert Brock are taking turns running daily half marathons, for a total of 26.2 miles every day. They’re also documenting their experience on the web.
The men say doing it to promote “resiliency” and to encourage “the warrior spirit in everyone.”
Secretary Gates Calls For Reduction of DoD Spending — On Saturday Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave a blistering speech that called for a significant restructuring of Pentagon spending, reports Andrea Stone at AOL News. Citing a “gusher of defense spending” following 9/11, Gates stated his desire to reduce spending on weapons systems and military health care. He also called for a reduction in the number of generals and admirals in the services. Defense spending is a major component of the local economy.
BRAC Moves May Cause Traffic Woes — The transfer of 13,000 DoD jobs from Crystal City to Ft. Belvoir, Alexandria’s Mark Center development and elsewhere may cause major traffic problems, the Washington Post reports. The areas where the jobs are moving to are not Metro accessible and are not prepared to receive the ensuing crush of traffic, several people told the Post. By law, about four million square feet of office space in Crystal City must be vacated by September 2011.
Nearly a thousand people marched through Arlington today, following a six mile route from Alexandria to the White House for a May Day immigration reform protest.
The pro-immigration protesters held signs, quilts and American flags as they marched past Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon. Arlington police set up rolling roadblocks for the march, which was organized by the Alexandria-based group Tenants and Workers United.
A lone F-15C Eagle fighter jet flew over Arlington at noon today to honor eight airmen killed during World War II.
The crew’s B-24 Liberator bomber was shot down over the Republic of Palau on Sept. 1, 1944. For 60 years, the wreckage — and the crew’s remains — were lost to the sea.
A B-52 “Stratofortress” flew over Arlington National Cemetery at 11:40 this morning in honor of retired Air Force Colonel Thomas Mounts.
Mounts, a Vietnam veteran, was buried in Section 38 today after a service at Ft. Myer’s Old Post Chapel.
Maybe you’ve jogged by it and never quite knew why it’s there: thousands of colorful tulips in bloom between the Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
The tulips are planted on the grounds of the Netherlands Carillon, a gift given to the United States on behalf of the Dutch people in appreciation for our sacrifices during World War II. It was dedicated on May 5, 1960, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Netherlands’ liberation from the Nazis.
There’s a section of Arlington National Cemetery, near the Iwo Jima Memorial, that contains graves unlike any other. The graves belong not to soldiers, but to freed slaves who lived on the grounds after the Civil War, in a thriving “Freedman’s Village.”
The village was home to more than 1,100 former slaves, including the black abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who spent a year there, on what was once the estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s family.
If you want to escape to solemnity of this Good Friday, the famous Raspberry Brothers will be razzing on the 1980s classic “Karate Kid.” Think “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” but live and in person. That’s happening at 9:45 tonight at the Arlington Drafthouse (2903 Columbia Pike).
On Saturday at 10:00 a.m., the Barcroft community will be holding its annual Easter egg hunt at 800 S. Buchanan Street. Attendees are advised to bring a baked good.
Stanford Parris, a Republican who represented the eighth district of Virginia in congress for most of the 1980s, has died from heart disease at the age of 80.
Parris was an Air Force veteran. He was rescued after the jet he was piloting was shot down over North Korea.
