A Month at Fort Belvoir

Near the front gate at Fort Belvoir

Every now and then, one's professional life leads to unexpected events or at least certain events that are out of the ordinary.  One learns to face these with equanimity knowing that, on balance, they tend to add interest to the time and value to the resume.  Recently, a mandatory training requirement led me to have to spend four weeks 450 miles from home in Virginia, enrolled in the Force Management Course at the Army's Force Management School at Fort Belvoir.  Having already written several posts on the course itself, let me spend this one in relating how I endured the long time away from home.

Of course, on such an extended trip, I had to do my own grocery shopping, laundry, and ironing.  It was a challenge but, once I got a rhythm going, it was a lot easier than I expected.  I ate a lot of oatmeal and Ramen noodles, but it wasn't bad.  The laundry room was in the basement, just one floor down from me, right under my room actually.  I could hear the the washers in their spin cycles if I was quiet enough.  I expected a crowd and to have to wait a long time but that never happened.  My ironing routine was just like at home, except that instead of Connie doing my shirts it was me.

Starbucks at Fort Belvoir.  My favorite seat was by that
front window.

After the first week I got into a routing of going to Starbucks in the morning, just like at home, to drink a cup of their bold flavor of the week while reading.  Usually, I rose at five and was at the coffee shop a little past six.  This gave me more to to read than at home since classes did not begin until eight.  I usually read for more than an  hour.  I finished Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda, by Sean Naylor while I was here, and got a good start on The Life and Campaigns of Lieutenant General Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson, by R. L. Dabney before graduating.

Class time ran from eight to four on average.  We normally took an hour for lunch and had a ten minute break every hour.  The breaks were essential after sitting through fifty minutes of PowerPoint.  There was no homework, to speak of, save for the necessity of studying for the exams.

Despite the weather, it was still springtime at Arlington
National Cemetery

The first weekend I spent in my room watching the Masters Tournament on TV.  On the second and third weekends, however, I got out and did a bit of exploring.  First, I visited Arlington National Cemetery which I discovered was only a fifteen mile drive from the front gate.  It was a terrible day, as far as the weather was concerned.  It rained all day and, about mid-day the winds were very strong.  Arriving early, I walked the cemetery until I thought my legs would break.  There was no charge for admittance but the parking set me back $15.00 because I stayed there until after two in the afternoon.  I packed a lunch so I wouldn't have to spend big bucks on a meal.

One of the first interesting spots was JFK's grave.  I remember as a young five year-old watching his funeral and burial on television.  Nearby, in relative isolation were the graves of two of his brothers, Robert and Ted.  Up the hill from the Kennedy grave site was the Arlington House and the Robert E. Lee museum.  This was an unexpected surprise.  I was completely unaware of the connection between Arlington and General Lee's family.  Other sites of note that I was able to see were the Tomb of the Unknowns--where I watched a changing of the guard, the grave of General Maxwell Thurmond whose tombstone carried the inscription: Be All You Can Be, the grave of General Maxwell Taylor of Vietnam fame, and the memorial and grave site of President William Howard Taft.  I walked through the Civil War section and through several other sections until my legs just couldn't take it anymore.

Memorial Bridge between Arlington National Cemetery
and the Lincoln Memorial

I started to go home, but after grabbing a bite to eat from my lunch bag, and taking a bit of a rest in my car, I decided to walk across the Memorial Bridge to see the Lincoln Memorial.  The bridge spans the Potomac a couple miles or so up from the Reagan National airport.  Half a dozen plane, at least, flew overhead during my crossing each way.  The wind was howling!  I learned later that tornadoes had swept through parts of North Carolina, around Raleigh.  It was more like a Category I hurricane where I was:  not quite, but it was super windy ... and rainy.

I visited the Lincoln Memorial.  What struck me was how huge the statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln was.  And then I thought, as I stood just inside the front columns, that this must be what the inside of a penny looks like.  From the front steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument dominates the view.  The dome of the Capitol Building can be seen in the distance on a straight line from Lincoln's chair through the Washington obelisk.  Too bad the reflecting pool directly in front of the memorial was under construction.

Korean War Memorial: these figures seemed about
eight feet tall

The residence of President George Washington
at Mount Vernon

Nearby the Lincoln Memorial, at 45-degree angles left and right, are the Vietnam and Korean War memorials.  I visited both but, because of the rain, my pictures didn't turn out well.  I was surprised by how small the Vietnam War Memorial was and how large the Korean War Memorial was.  I also couldn't get over how many people were out and about, like me, in the foul weather.  There were scores of tour buses idling nearby and people were everywhere.  It was the same at the cemetery.  Families and tour groups and buses galore.  Then I realized that it's probably like this every single day of the year.

The second weekend I took advantage of being so close to Mount Vernon--it's only about five miles from the front gate--to visit the home of our nation's first president.  It was quite a walk around the grounds, despite the threatening weather.  President Washington considered himself, "first and foremost," according to the tour guides, a farmer.  He raised wheat and tobacco, kept sheep and cattle and horses, and grew a variety of vegetables in his rather extensive gardens.  Standing in the long line to be guided through the residence, I noticed a sign about a "necessary."  A necessary is what most people I know would call an outhouse.  There were two of them, actually, and they were both in the front left and right flanks of the residence, respectively, secluded by overhanging magnolia branches.  The tour through the residence was short, well regulated, and interesting.  The view of the Potomac from the rear of the residence was awesome.  I was happy that the rain decided to hold off so I took a lot of pictures, especially of the farm animals, and sent them to the Little Man.

North entrance to the White House

Then I went back to DC.  My aim was to visit a certain bookstore on Connecticut Avenue that I had come across online.  It seemed an interesting thing to do.  I never imagined that it was take me two hours to find Connecticut Avenue (it also goes by the name of 17th Street), let alone the bookstore.  When I finally found the store, I was on the wrong side of the street and it seemed that all the parking spaces in the city had already been taken.  So I gave up and went to see if I would  have any better luck viewing the White House.  I did, but I did a lot of walking.  By the afternoon the clouds had cleared and the sun had come out.  It was a hot afternoon.  I saw the White House from the south, but much close than I had seen it the last time when I was travelling with the family.  I also walked around and viewed the north entrance.  I was amazed both by the nearness and the age of the other building.  For instance, the White House and the Treasury Building are practically next door neighbors.  I also saw the Department of Agriculture Building, the Border Patrol building, the Willard and Mayflower hotels, and lots of statues.  After spending more than hour just trying to get into the city, I was glad that, on the way out, it only took me a few minutes.

Yours truly

Sometimes one has to endure certain things in the course of one's professional career.  This month has been no exception for me.  All in all, I would say that I've managed pretty well in this case at Fort Belvoir and its environs.