Repair or replace Tomb of the Unknowns
The two old sailors stepped side by side toward the Tomb of the Unknowns, carrying a memorial wreath to their shipmates between them. The crowd stood hushed in the autumn sun while the pair, in ball caps and blazers, approached the white marble monument, left their wreath, stepped back and saluted.
A bugler had just played taps, and as the breeze rustled a majestic elm nearby, the moment was almost perfect: Few seemed focused on the jagged crack that zigzagged through the 48-ton stone like a scar, or the dings and chips in its surface.
But away from the scene in Arlington National Cemetery last week, debate raged over the fate of the nation's legendary icon to its unknown war dead. The cemetery has long wanted the tomb's weathered aboveground monument replaced. Preservationists want it repaired and retained. And now Congress is involved.
Two senators, James Webb (D-Va.) and Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), added an amendment to the Senate version of this year's defense authorization bill that would halt any decision on replacing the tomb, pending a report to Congress. And in a letter last month, they urged the same to the Army, which operates the cemetery.
Read entire article at WaPo
A bugler had just played taps, and as the breeze rustled a majestic elm nearby, the moment was almost perfect: Few seemed focused on the jagged crack that zigzagged through the 48-ton stone like a scar, or the dings and chips in its surface.
But away from the scene in Arlington National Cemetery last week, debate raged over the fate of the nation's legendary icon to its unknown war dead. The cemetery has long wanted the tomb's weathered aboveground monument replaced. Preservationists want it repaired and retained. And now Congress is involved.
Two senators, James Webb (D-Va.) and Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), added an amendment to the Senate version of this year's defense authorization bill that would halt any decision on replacing the tomb, pending a report to Congress. And in a letter last month, they urged the same to the Army, which operates the cemetery.