Veteran's Day, Quantico Nat'l Cemetery
30th Annual Veterans Day Ceremony, Quantico Nat'l Cemetery. Brigadier General Mark R. Wise, USMC, delivered the keynote speech. A couple footnotes I learned today: 1) This year's Veterans Day is the first without any surviving veterans (from either side) from The Great War (WWI). The last two surviving vets died this year. 2) When the Firing Detail line up to fire 3 volleys from 7 rifles, it is NOT called a 21 Gun Salute. Firstly, "Guns" in miltary parlance, refer to large caliber weaponry, like guns aboard a ship, or artillery. Hand-held guns are rifles. Second, the 21 Gun Salute is only for the President of the United States or Heads of State (I think I might have also seen that it is used on Washington's Birthday and the 4th of July, but I'm not positive on that). Incidentally, the number 21 is such because at the time the military adopted the salute, the idea was that there would be a gun for each state in the union. Obviously at that time, there were only