The Sorrow of Section 60 (Arlington National Cemetery).

[MattSh]

Larry Downing and his wife, Angelica, first visited Arlington National Cemetery together last Memorial Day. As they walked around Section 60, they saw Laura Youngblood place flowers on the gravestone of Petty Officer Third Class Travis L. Youngblood and then lie down on the ground next to it. Mr. Downing raised his point-and-shoot camera and made a single frame, just as she reached out and brushed the word “husband” with the tip of her finger.

“Then she got up and she looked at me,” Mr. Downing recalled. “I looked at her and she had this devastated look on her face. She asked me if I knew any of the people there and I said: ‘No, ma’am. I’m a veteran and I came over to pay my respects.”

Mrs. Youngblood made some introductions. “Well, this guy right here knew my husband,” she said. “And the gentleman three stones down — he also was killed on the same day my husband was killed.”

Mr. Downing told her how sorry he was. Mrs. Youngblood shrugged her shoulders. “What are you going to do?”

That day, Section 60 began to exert a pull on the Downings. They became regular visitors.

NY TImes Lens Blog... http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/behind-32/

=====> Best to view the photos in full screen mode. <=====

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We send our sons and daughters to die........for what?

They were the future. And now they're gone, the best and the brightest, from our sight, from our lives...forever...


:cry:

[HillbillyBob]

4. I am a vet so is my partner

Cal Peggy. I have been sayin the same thing since I heard mention of (*) would possibly run in 98 that we would be going to war for oil. Not precient, just lookin at the evidence.
I said 'we will be going to war for oil to satisfy the oil barons and it will be our young folks that will die and for greed and greed alone'.

I get so angry that I am powerless to do anything about it and it breaks my heart when I see on the local news that "pfc so and so made the ultimate sacrifice he's a hero."

[saigon68]

5. I could say

Bring em on. Shouted the ______

However this present situation is a police problem. And should be "contained" as such.

To send 18 year olds with a Bayonet, to subdue religious fanatics in a desert, is a recipe for death and nonsense

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

[Rhiannon12866]

3. There was a TV documentary on Section 60.

It was totally heart-wrenching and, at first, I wanted to walk away, but my BF said that it was our duty to watch it. I am glad that I saw it, gave me a new appreciation of the sacrifices, especially by the families, but I don't know if I could watch it again... ;(

Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery (2008)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1332062/

[Captain Hilts]

6. Some of the kin camp out for the day. Arlington looks the other way when they bring their dogs.

It's heart-breaking.