WASHINGTON — There’s no time limit for providing your thoughts on remembrance, as you fill out the Armistice Day Memorial Wall that goes up on the National Mall the weekend before the holiday, July 30.
Now in its 20th year, the wall is a striking display of the military headstones or headstones sections by alphabetical order that, stacked one on top of the other, tells the stories of every veteran buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Through the rock that marks the wall’s southernmost section, visitors can hear a brass band play “Taps” and pictures of those buried in Arlington, as well as a short video that tells the stories of the people who died.
The wall usually attracts 5,000 visitors per day and has a wait list for people waiting to sign up. You’ll also find a bit of history, the 11 states that make up the 99-country armed forces and 10 post offices that sent people to World War I.
The wall can be visited anytime on Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. You don’t need to go to Arlington to see it. It’s open on Saturdays from Memorial Day through Veterans Day, unless there is a ceremony at Arlington. It’s not open on the last Saturday of the month.
Your path to the wall
From the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., take the NoMa Metro line to L’Enfant Plaza to begin the walk.
Follow L’Enfant Plaza until the street ends at Independence Avenue. Go north. Now, on the left, look north for Independence Avenue. There is a brick cross on the corner that marks the corner of Independence and L’Enfant.
Follow L’Enfant past a monument that marks the site of a protest where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. It’s the corner of Independence and L’Enfant.
After a flower shop that’s plopped down in an alley near the corner, look north on Independence Avenue for a sizable area marked by a sign with the U.S. flag as a banner. On the right, look for an empty walkway where a swath of grass fell.
Back up, across Independence Avenue, follow the path to the grassy patch in the spot where the walkway fell. Walk up and then pause. A newly added plaque below the walkway that descends into a gully reads:
A Connecticut resident, Albert C. Cherry, who was serving in the 1st Infantry, was killed in action on Nov. 11, 1918. His remains were received by the Connecticut National Guard on Dec. 11, 1918, and reburied in Fairfield, Conn. When his family died in the 1940s, the family members whose bodies were then interred were then cremated, and the ashes of Cherry were added to the family plot in Fairfield.
The right-hand side of the gully has a large stone with a white fence around it that marks a cemetery. Follow the fence and take a right to go south and a short, high dirt trail is toward the center of the yellow field. A short way ahead, a plaque reads:
First name: Wyatt. Occupation: Enlisted –11th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Second name: Stephen John. Occupation: Enlisted –10th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Third name: John Kile. Occupation: Enlisted -10th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Fourth name: Joseph Mason. Occupation: Enlisted –9th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Fifth name: James Pratt. Occupation: Enlisted –2nd Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Sixth name: Charles A. Hogan. Occupation: Enlisted –17th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Seventh name: Henry Stewart. Occupation: Enlisted –19th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Eighth name: Francis Levi. Occupation: Enlisted –9th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
Ninth name: John T. Creed. Occupation: Enlisted –9th Cav. Combat Infantry, U.S. Army –1918-19
