Arlington Good-byes By Roberta “Alex”ander Carrier

I come to Arlington to say good-bye as I have done before. It is a comfortable day on which to seek comfort here, to share solace and strength.

We gather together, family and friends, those who loved Josephine.  We gently bend toward each other to hear soft words and gift one another with stories of her life.

Josephine is my late father’s only sibling, an older sister who held the last memories of his childhood and youth. She is a fellow warrior who served her country well and now is served well by her country.

David, her long-loved husband, stands lonely in a crowd of loved ones who hold and hug and give what strength, what comfort they can.

My siblings and I join together in this echo of a day once before when we stood here with our mother and said good-bye to our beloved father, the warrior who once “danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings”.

We remember the aunt who flirted with life, teasing it into giving her adventurers. She was a gifted painter with a subtle vision stroked across canvas and paper in haunting beauty. Josephine and David traveled the world loving life and each other through all their journeys.

Our group moves along caringly groomed paths to a place beneath the swooping boughs of attendant trees. It is not far from where my father’s name whispers across a simple white stone.

His is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of proud, pristine markers marching in revue, straight and strong in lines stretching ever outward. They parade along calm avenues of green grass and pass by watchful reverent trees. Evergreens in verdant robes ring the grounds and, even though the harsh lines and sounds of the city lay ever near, there is a safe silence here.

Words, prayers, a flag folded and given, twenty-one gunshots and the mournful cry of taps; we leave behind those warriors whose lives and sacrifice lie sacred in this place of peace where they have won entry.

With our last look backward, we see the curving spires of the almost completed Air Force Memorial. Three gleaming fingers of stainless steel reaching up to touch the face of God.

Honor those who served and sacrificed for their country and their fellow citizens and remember the families and friends who gave up holidays, special occasions, ordinary times and sometimes entire futures with the ones they loved.

Note: My father served his country as an Air Force pilot through 3 wars and many conflicts. His favorite poem was High Flight. Read the full version from which this quote was lovingly taken in his memory.

Air Force Memorial Foundation
Air Force Memorial
Stories about the memorial.
     Washington Post - Air Force Memorial a Tribute to Flight and Engineering
     Washington Post – Wild Blue Wonder
A link to photos of the Air Force Memorial.
Video of memorial. Link to page, scroll down to Air Memorial 3 and click link, then click Total Force link to hear about the significance of the memorial.

See Arlington Good-bye in photos.