Christmas at Arlington

I posted the picture above last year at Christmas along with the lyrics to the song Arlington (below).

Michelle Malkin has information about the Wreaths Across America celebration.

Every December for the past 15 years, Morrill Worcester, owner of one of the world’s largest holiday wreath companies, has taken time in the midst of his busiest season to haul a truckload of wreaths to Arlington from his small Downeast Maine town of Harrington.
For years, he and a small band of volunteers laid the wreaths in virtual obscurity. But in the last 12 months that has changed, thanks to a dusting of snow last year at the cemetery, an evocative photograph, a sentimental poem and a chain e-mail. And this year, Worcester went national. A new program, “Wreaths Across America,” shipped a total of about 1,300 wreaths to more than 200 national cemeteries and vets’ memorials in all 50 states.

Worcester, 56, says he wants to help Americans remember and honor deceased military veterans, particularly at Christmas, when they’re missed most. On the Wreaths Across America website, he makes this comment: “When people hear about what we’re doing, they want to know if I’m a veteran. I’m not. But I make it my business never to forget.”

On Thursday he looked at the crowd of volunteers — five times as many as last year’s — and said, “I didn’t realize there were this many people that felt like I do.”

Here are the words to Trace Adkins song Arlington.

I never thought that this is where I’d settle down,
I thought I’d die an old man back in my hometown,
they gave me this plot of land, me and some other men, for a job well done,
there’s a big white house sits on a hill just up the road,
the man inside he cried the day they brought me home,
they folded up a flag and told my mom and dad, we’re proud of your son

(chorus:)
and I’m proud to be on this peaceful piece of property,
I’m on sacred ground and i’m in the best of company,
I’m thankful for those things I’ve done,
I can rest in piece, I’m one of the chosen ones, I made it to Arlington

I remember Daddy brought me here when I was eight,
we searched all day to find out where my Granddad lay,
and when we finally found that cross,
he said, “son this is what it cost to keep us free” now here I am,
a thousand stones away from him,
he recognized me on the first day I came in,
and it gave me a chill when he clicked his heels, and saluted me.

(repeat chorus)

and everytime I hear twenty-one guns,
I know they brought another hero home to us

we’re thankful for those thankful for the things we’ve done,
we can rest in peace, ’cause we are the chosen ones,
we made it to Arlington, yea dust to dust,
don’t cry for us, we made it to Arlington