Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Arlington National Cemetery: Historic Resting Place
Aired April 17, 2003 - 15:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two servicemen killed during the war in Iraq were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery today. Air Force Major Gregory Stone and Marine Lance Corporal Patrick Nixon (ph) both buried in Arlington.
Major Stone, a member of the Idaho National Air Guard, died of injuries sustained from a grenade attack by a fellow soldier. Corporal Nixon (ph) was one of 17 killed during an ambush near Nasiriya on March 23rd. Nixon (ph) was in the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Unit stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for many American heroes. Some of the famous names include Kennedy, Eisenhower, McArthur, Gus Grissom, Joe Louis. The site is steeped in history and reverence, as our Bruce Morton explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Honor Guards know the rituals by heart, of course. The commands to fire, the ceremony with the flag. Arlington National Cemetery performs more than 20 funerals each weekday. Some of them lately for Americans killed in Iraq. The service is for Marine 1st Lieutenant Fred Pokorney, Jr.
The cemetery holds more than a quarter of a million military graves, and it all started out of spite. The big mansion belonged to Robert E. Lee's family. Union troops took it in 1864 and said, "We'll put a graveyard here so they'll never be able to go back." These are some of the first graves where the garden is next to the house.
TOM SHERLOCK, HISTORIAN: What did begin as a way of preventing the Lee family from returning to their land and desecrating it what they thought with burial of soldiers has blossomed into certainly the most preeminent military cemetery in America, if not the world.
MORTON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). This is a memorial to the confederate soldiers buried here, some 500 of them, along with black and white soldiers who fought in the Union Army. Men and women from all the wars.
The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the War of 1812, from later wars, when a plane crew, say (ph), crashed and died together. Medal of honor winners. An eccentric artilleryman named Wallace FitzRandolph (ph), who said he had spent so much time with his guns he wanted to be buried under one. He was. But mostly it's ordinary Americans.
Historian Tom Sherlock has worked here since 1975.
SHERLOCK: I have two feelings. One is a bittersweet, almost sadness, you know, when you read a name and you can see by the age that this young person died. You can tell by the years that it was the Korean War or Vietnam War or the first Gulf War.
Then there's also a sense of gratitude. And I'm able to walk down these rows and people are able to come here and enjoy its beauty because of the freedoms that these people bestowed upon us.
MORTON: The place is full of pain and honor. The family gets memories and a flag. Bruce Morton, CNN, Arlington, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 17, 2003 - 15:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two servicemen killed during the war in Iraq were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery today. Air Force Major Gregory Stone and Marine Lance Corporal Patrick Nixon (ph) both buried in Arlington.
Major Stone, a member of the Idaho National Air Guard, died of injuries sustained from a grenade attack by a fellow soldier. Corporal Nixon (ph) was one of 17 killed during an ambush near Nasiriya on March 23rd. Nixon (ph) was in the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Unit stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for many American heroes. Some of the famous names include Kennedy, Eisenhower, McArthur, Gus Grissom, Joe Louis. The site is steeped in history and reverence, as our Bruce Morton explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Honor Guards know the rituals by heart, of course. The commands to fire, the ceremony with the flag. Arlington National Cemetery performs more than 20 funerals each weekday. Some of them lately for Americans killed in Iraq. The service is for Marine 1st Lieutenant Fred Pokorney, Jr.
The cemetery holds more than a quarter of a million military graves, and it all started out of spite. The big mansion belonged to Robert E. Lee's family. Union troops took it in 1864 and said, "We'll put a graveyard here so they'll never be able to go back." These are some of the first graves where the garden is next to the house.
TOM SHERLOCK, HISTORIAN: What did begin as a way of preventing the Lee family from returning to their land and desecrating it what they thought with burial of soldiers has blossomed into certainly the most preeminent military cemetery in America, if not the world.
MORTON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). This is a memorial to the confederate soldiers buried here, some 500 of them, along with black and white soldiers who fought in the Union Army. Men and women from all the wars.
The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the War of 1812, from later wars, when a plane crew, say (ph), crashed and died together. Medal of honor winners. An eccentric artilleryman named Wallace FitzRandolph (ph), who said he had spent so much time with his guns he wanted to be buried under one. He was. But mostly it's ordinary Americans.
Historian Tom Sherlock has worked here since 1975.
SHERLOCK: I have two feelings. One is a bittersweet, almost sadness, you know, when you read a name and you can see by the age that this young person died. You can tell by the years that it was the Korean War or Vietnam War or the first Gulf War.
Then there's also a sense of gratitude. And I'm able to walk down these rows and people are able to come here and enjoy its beauty because of the freedoms that these people bestowed upon us.
MORTON: The place is full of pain and honor. The family gets memories and a flag. Bruce Morton, CNN, Arlington, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
