Sunset Parade

Our tour guide from the Monuments by Moonlights told us about the Marine's Sunset Parade every Tuesday evening at the Iwo Jima Memorial (or officially known as the US Marine Corps War Memorial).  

The man sitting next to me is Pat.  He is a security consultant who works with Ken and was onsite for most of the year.  We are lucky Ken only had to visit for 3 1/2 weeks.  

According to the Marine's website the Sunset Parade is, "A one hour performance featuring the music of "The Commandant's Own", The Unites States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps and a precision drill by the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon."

It was beyond amazing!  

 The band came onto the filed from either side of the memorial.

I was expecting patriotic songs but they played show tunes and all sorts of music.  While marching, while making crazy formations.  It was awesome!  They got very close to us a few different times and it made it much easier for the girls to sit through a concert in the park with so much going on.

 Then the different platoons appeared on the edges of the field for the silent drill.

 I've never seen a silent drill before, it was impressive.!

 They were so in sync without any commands.  You could feel the silence envelope everyone in the crowd and all you heard was the clicks of when they slapped their guns.

 I can't believe they did everything with bayonets on the end of the guns.

 At the end they played a few patriotic songs and performed together.  Then there was a 21 gum salute.  Which I also didn't know was 3 guns shot 7 times.  You can see that on top of the Iwo Jima Memorial there is one Marine standing there.  After the 21 gun salute he played Taps.

 All of us in front of the Memorial.  Since the girls were sleeping during the Monuments by Moonlight Tour when we stopped at this one, this was the first time I was able to see it up close.  We had fun talking about the different battles the Marines had fought and we found the one for Vietnam.  Rose crashed during the Silent Drill.

 By the time we were walking back to the car she was happy to get a ride on Daddy's shoulders.