Uncle Charlie Crashes the WWII Memorial

The beginning of October my Uncle Charlie came to town from Arizona after the death of his first cousin Boo Painter Davis.  Charlie is my mom's younger brother and they are the only two remaining siblings in the Tipton clan.  While his family moved away over 60 years ago, Charlie still maintains his connections with Maryland relatives, always making the trip back here for special events and funerals.  Of course, funerals in themselves can be a little humbling to octogenarians, but Uncle Charlie took it all in stride and used the opportunity to visit relatives and reintroduce his daughter, Barbara, to her Maryland relatives.




A Tipton's visit over 40 years ago!
Uncle Charlie, Aunt Betty, and Lisa, Paula, Barbara & Terry across the front along with the Pararas's, Bodmer's and Grandma Tipton.

Charlie's visit to our home was a great reason to have a family weekend ourselves.  My mom came up and we reconnected with the western Tipton's reminiscing about the past and bringing each other up to date about family and life.  We invited more Tipton cousins over for a dinner on Saturday night, but wanted to sightsee with Barbara during the day.  Uncle Charlie wanted to take in some local civil war sights of which there are a whole host of sites in our area; Antietam, Harper's Ferry, but alas, the stupid government shutdown had them all closed.  

The other option was DC, but that was closed down too.  However, Uncle Charlie had never seen the WWII Memorial and I thought we had a good shot of seeing that memorial since he is a WWII veteran and the U.S. Park Service didn't stop veterans from visiting.  So we set our sights on taking on Washington and made our way to the memorial.

It was definitely a terrible time to be visiting Washington.  All the museums were closed, the zoo was closed, any National Park/Memorials including walk up memorials were closed, any affiliated sidewalks, roads or parking lots were closed but worst of all, the most unpublicized fact, all the bathrooms on the mall were CLOSED!  Give me a break!!!!

I have been scanning old family photos and had a great picture of Uncle Charlie in uniform.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find that one in time for our excursion, but I was able to locate the picture of Charlie in uniform with his family on the front steps of their home in Dickerson just before his deployment.

Top Row:  Uncle Tip, Uncle Charlie and Grandpa Tipton
Bottom Row:  Ann Lee, Grandma and Aunt Mary
Cat: Unknown

So with that photo in hand,  Charlie, Barbara and I were intent on crashing the WWII Memorial.  At 85, Uncle Charlie seemed to be game for being civilly disobedient and we set off for DC. 

We arrived in DC and had to park almost a mile from the memorial, so Uncle Charlie, said "Let's rent bikes."  Most of the other veterans I saw that day were in wheelchairs, but we rolled up to the memorial on bikes!

We arrived in the midst of a rally with WWII veterans and cheering crowds.  Evidently the three tour buses in front of the memorial were full of veterans and their families who had been brought there by the Honor Flight Network.  I had never heard of them before, but it is a great organization that brings WWII veterans to "their memorial" before they can't make the trip. 

The veterans made their way in a procession of wheelchairs down the entryway to the memorial,  lined on both sides by Honor Flight volunteers and the general public clapping and thanking them for their service.  Uncle Charlie took to congratulating each of them too, shaking hands, finding out what units they were assigned to.  Uncle Charlie served in the Army Infantry in the Pacific and was in the 25th Division, 35th regiment.

With photo in hand, we followed the procession through the barricades, past the Park Rangers with the rest of the veterans into the inter sanctum of the memorial. 

 

 

Our intent was to visit the memorial, but it became  much more meaningful by visiting with the other groups of veterans.  We spent some time soaking in the symbolism of the memorial and the unique experience we had, enhanced due to the shutdown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie and Barbara by the Iowa tower.  They lived in Iowa when he taught at the University there.

 

Another Infantryman who served in the Pacific

 

We then took a quick ride around the mall

 

and made our way back to the car.  We had to cut our visit short and set out in search of two of the most elusive commodities on the mall, food and a public restroom!