Spirit of America

Saturday night we had the opportunity to go see the Army's Spirit of America show in Fairfax, VA. It's a travelling show put on by the ceremonial units of the Army, including the Army Band, the Old Guard, the Fife and Drum Corps, the Army Drill Team, and several others. There were reenactments of historical battles and moments in US History as well as traditional military music. It was particularly meaningful that we got to see it on the weekend of 9/11.

We had an awesome time--the show was incredibly professional, inspiring, and educational. We spoke to some of the soldiers afterwards--one in particular made a great impression on us. He's just 19 years old, enlisted a year ago and went right into the Old Guard. He does burials at Arlington the rest of the year, goes to the field like everyone else, but spends part of his time training for this show. He was incredibly eloquent, polite, and a great spokesman for the Army. I didn't get a picture of him but he was one of the Korean War soldiers in the show.

If you live near Providence, RI, or Columbus, OH, and can get out to see this either this weekend or next, I HIGHLY recommend it. You will love it! You can find out more details here: Spirit of America. George Washington at Valley Forge:Reenactment of D Day, complete with weapons firing:This was really neat. They had soldiers exhibiting the various uniforms worn over the past 200+ years. That part up in the front was so cool--if you look closely, you can see that they are modelling the exact poses of the soldiers at the Korean War memorial and the Vietnam memorial from the Mall in DC. Those guys held those exact poses for a LONG time.

The guys loved seeing all the soldiers in the halls afterwards. 2 other things I didn't get pictures of were the Drill Team and the Fife and Drum Corps. Those were both incredible! I was too engrossed in the show to remember to take a photo. The drill team did all kinds of, well, drills with their weapons and bayonets. And I could have listened to the Fife and Drum Corps all night! I was incredibly impressed by the amount of precision movement they had while playing such elaborate pieces. Very cool evening.