BUS TRIP TO WASHINGTON DC OCTOBER 5-8th, 2017
Early in the morning of Thursday October 5, 2017 the VFW District 11 Memorial Honor Guard along with veterans, wives and guests left the VFW Post 9010 in Clemmons for a Bus Trip to Washington DC. The main purpose of the trip was to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. The secondary purpose was to visit as many of our nation’s capital monuments and museums as possible on a four-day bus trip.
We had quite a cross section of people on this trip, with all the branches of the military being represented. Bus travelers were members of the VFW, American Legion, VFW Auxiliary, even the local Civil Air Patrol had a few members along. The most notable individual though was Anthony (Tony) Goebel. Tony is a WWII Army Air Corp P-51 Mustang fighter pilot that recently turned 100 years old!
We left at O-Dark-Thirty on a cool and cloudy Thursday morning. The Christian Tours bus was quite comfortable with a rest room in the rear. It was equipped with Wi-Fi and power outlets for those of us who wanted to stay “connected.” We made a few “pit” stops and after lunch near Chester VA, we arrived at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA.
We spent the afternoon visiting the Marine Corps Museum, with its many realistic battle fields depicting conditions of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. It gave many of us a chilling feeling of being back “in country”. The proud history of the United States Marine Corp was evident everywhere and the gift shop has the largest collection of “Semper Fi” memorabilia than anywhere in the world. What I personally did not understand was why the Marine Corps ATM in the gift shop, charged my Navy Credit Union card a fee? Did the Navy every charge the Marines a fee for transportation? It makes you wonder!
We checked into the hotel near Woodbridge VA and then went right back out for dinner at a local buffet restaurant. After dinner we stopped at the United States Air Force Memorial. At night it is a spectacular lit monument, and the view of the Washington skyline is breathtaking! We then returned to the hotel around 10 PM. All in all, it was quite a full day!
The next day, Friday 10-06-2017, we had breakfast in the hotel and left about 9 AM for Arlington National Cemetery. We had every intention to visit the historic points of interest in the cemetery by arriving two hours early, but fate was not on our side this day.
Access to the cemetery by large vehicles is through Ft. Meyer and that entrance is quite narrow so our bus had to make a sharp turn from the access road to get in. There was a loud “crunch” sound about half way through, as we scraped part of the vertical fence pole on the bottom edge of the bus! Thank God, there were no injuries (except to the bus) but our schedule was delayed for more than an hour in order to complete the military police accident report. As a result, our time was greatly shortened as we had to quickly get through the visitor’s entry point, and make our way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by 11:00 AM.
We were scheduled to present our wreath at 11:15 and we could NOT be late! Well somehow the Honor Guard, wreath, and us vets made it all the way up that steep hill just in the nick of time.
The military guard is extremely punctual and we did not fail! We had our team in place with the most beautiful wreath ready to go. The actual laying of the wreath is very formal, as well as quick, and our Honor Guard carried it off without a hitch. We all stood at attention while taps were played and you could hear a pin drop in the crowd of more than 200 spectators. There was also many a tear in the eyes of the onlookers as we paid our respects to our Nation’s Military Heroes.
As you gaze out at the Tomb and the skyline of Washington DC in the background, you think about all your family and friends that served their country and perhaps paid the ultimate price for our freedom. May God bless them, and all of their families for keeping us free in this troublesome world.
Our mission complete, we returned to our broken bus, and waited for a replacement to arrive. One of our Honor Guard members, Sherrill Stewart, has a daughter in the USAF and she heard about our plight. This Air Force Major lives in the DC area, so she went to the local Mc Donald’s and ordered burgers and fries for everyone on the bus! As we waited a few hours for a local relief bus to come we once again had been “saved” by the military. A big THANK YOU to Major Karen S. Patrick (USAF) for saving the day!
Our delay at Arlington set us back for the US Capital Tour but we rescheduled and arrived at the Capital Visitor Center around 2 PM. A member of Senator Richard Burr’s staff, “Keisha”, was nice enough to reschedule our tour, and warmly greeted us in the new Visitors Center.
The US Capital Dome has been completely refurbished and looks fantastic! The new visitor center comes complete with an audio tour by your own special group tour guide. Our guide was especially knowledgeable, and answered all of our questions in a very noisy and crowded rotunda. You do not go into the separate chambers as you did in the past, but you do spend time in the outer areas and the “crypt” below. The history is overwhelming and the architecture and artwork makes you proud to be an American.
Friday ended with dinner at a local mall, where we were able to choose our own restaurant. The day ended back at the hotel around 9 PM. It wasn’t exactly what we had planned, but an exciting day anyway. At the hotel the good people of Christian Tours had provided us with a replacement bus to continue our tour and take us home on Sunday.
On Saturday, October 7th we headed out to the Jefferson Memorial. The weather was just perfect and we spent the early morning thinking of Thomas Jefferson and how fortunate we are as Americans to have such a great thinker in the early days of our great nation. To read his words on the inside walls of the Memorial gives one a deeper understanding of how we started out on a very special road to freedom. I wonder how Jefferson would respond to some of the nonsense that we have today?
The Holocaust Museum was next on the agenda, and we arrived there around 9:45 AM and “on schedule.” This was my first time there, and I must admit it does change your perspective on man’s inhumanity to man. How the world could let that happen to so many people is beyond belief. I happened to notice Tony Goebel. sitting in the main lobby amid all the names of those who perished. He must have had some feelings of pride or accomplishment knowing that his generation put an end to that cruel and inhuman treatment. At the end of the Holocaust Museum Tour is a section devoted to genocide. The Khmer Rouge (Cambodia 1975-1979) and the present-day war in Syria makes you wonder, what if anything did we learn from WWII? You leave there with a better understanding of the words “never forget”.
Lunch was at Union Station in downtown DC, a fantastic looking building that Lincoln could walk to from the White House. If you ever go to Washington, don’t rule out going by train. The building is an enormous complex of trains, buses, cars and people that staggers your mind. It is an amazing lunch stop with every fast food imaginable on the lower level.
Around 1PM we boarded the bus and went directly to the National Mall where we visited the Lincoln Monument, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, WW II Memorial, Washington Monument and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Some of us also had time to visit some of the Smithsonian Museums directly off the Mall. A beautiful day was spent visiting our favorite spots. We left the National Mall area around 5:45 for dinner and then back over to our hotel in Woodbridge.
Sunday morning, October 8th, 2017, and it was time to return home to NC, but not before we got in one more great attraction. It was the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. The complex is located at the south end of the main runway of Dulles International Airport, and it houses the largest indoor collection of airplanes, rockets and space ships in the world. A gigantic collection of 100+ years of aviation in one place.
You can see the “Enola Gay” B-29 up close as well as the space shuttle “Discovery” with all of its ceramic tiles on the underside of the wings. The Wright Brothers plane (a replica, the original is downtown in the Smithsonian) and the Concorde are all under one roof!
I, being a USAF vet, was impressed with the collection of fighter planes especially the F-4 fighter of Vietnam War Vintage. The SR-71 Black Bird (Spy Plane) is the center of attraction and the Imax theater will blow your mind with their movies of rocket launches and fighter plane dog fights.
We spent several hours seeing all the displays, and boarded the bus around noon to go to lunch. We had a terrific lunch at the local Longhorn Restaurant, and was on our way back home around 3 PM.
We arrived back in Clemmons around 9:30pm, tired but thoroughly satisfied that we had a great visit to our Nation’s Capital.
Respectfully submitted by,
Richard F. Lange
VFW Post 9010
*** END ***
SEE THE PICTURES BELOW
THE US MILITARY HONOR GUARD WITH THE WREATH FROM CLEMMONS. 
THE WREATH DETAIL JUST BEFORE THE EVENT. 
TAPS ARE PLAYED WITH ALL VETS AND MILITARY SALUTING. 
SOME OF OUR MEMORIALHONOR GUARD AND AUXILARY MEMBERS.
OCTOBER 6, 2017
PICTURES FROM THE TOUR OF WASHINGTON DC.
INSIDE THE MARINE CORP MUSEUM. AT QUANTICO VA.
TONY AND HIS SON AT THE MARINE CORP MUSEUM 
ON OUR WAY TO THE AIR FORCE MEMORIAL AND SOME GREAT VIEWS OF WASHINGTON.
JUST WAITING FOR THE BUS. 
THE DAMAGED BUS. 
ON TO CAPITAL BUT FIRST LUNCH AT UNION STATION. 
INSIDE THE CAPITAL DOME LOOKING UP! 
THE CRYPT ROOM BELOW THE ROTUNDA. 
INSIDE THE CAPITAL REMEMBERING ALL OF OUR HEROES! 
BRITE & EARLY NEXT MORNING JIM DALTON AND THE REST OF US VISITED THE JEFFERSON MEM. 
TONY GOEBEL AT THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM. I WONDER IF HE THOUGHT THAT GENECIDE HAD ENDED I N 1945? 
CLIFF HARRIS AT THE VIETNAM WALL REMEMBERED HIS BUDDY. 
THAT NIGHT WE ENJOYED DINNER WITH A TERRIFIC WWII FIGHTER PILOT! 
THE NEXT DAY, SUNDAY, WE WERE HEADED HOME BUT NOT BEFORE A QUICK STOP AT THE WHITE HOUSE AND THEN ON TO
THE NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM IN CHANTILLY VA.
BACK IN THE BUS AND ON TO THE NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM IN CHANTILLY VA WHERE WE SAW...
THE ORIGINAL B-29 THAT DROPPED THE BOMB ON JAPAN AND ENDED THE WAR! 
AND HERE I AM WITH MY FAVORITE AIRPLANE THE F-4 PHANTOM.
I SERVICED THE RF-FC AT UDORN THAILAND. 66-67
60 YEARS AGO THAT AIRPLANE COULD TAKE A PICTURE OF A GOLF BALL
AT 60,000 FEET AND YOU COULD COUNT THE DIMPLES ON IT!
CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT OUR SATELLITES CAN DO NOW?
TIME TO HEAD HOME TO NC
TONY MUST HAVE BEEN THINKING "THE WORLD HAS CERTAINLY CHANGED SINCE 1946"