09/14/2024
After 11 years on my shelf, I am finally committing my mother's ashes to the Arlington National Cemetery for burial/inurnment on her birthday, September 30 at 2pm. It took me a long time to make this decision. Originally, after the ANC denied my request for in-ground burial, I planned to scatter her ashes all over the country at the places where she might be remembered --- Sweetwater TX, Mars Hill NC, Nielsville WI, Idyllwild CA, (>| AZ, Greenwich Village NY near the Arts Students League, maybe Daytona Beach FL, as well as somewhere on the grounds of the ANC VA . . . but my grand scheme collapsed over years of inaction, and I realized that it would be fitting to donate her 1962 painting of the horse Black Jack at JFK's funeral procession to the Arlington Natl Cemetery and that she should be there as well, where her descendants, friends and admirers could visit when passing by, while visiting our nation's capital, perhaps to remember her special story, her extraordinary life, which she started, in one respect, learning to ride "the US Army way" trained by an ex-US Army Cavalry officer in her home state of North Carolina.
Her burial with military honors seems appropriate, not because of her bravery under gun fire or in killing other human beings, but for her service in the more important part of the military, the preparation and ex*****on --- as an instructor, an engineering pilot, a leader to the other Women Service Pilots. Her students, both Navy airmen and WASP, learned how to be skillful and careful with their extraordinary complex equipment, successful not foolhardy, brave but not unthinking. Some flew off the USS Enterprise. Others flew missions all over the US in support of our national efforts. The military is not just battlefield heroes, but the strength derived from its morale, its training, its pride, its research and engineering, its confidence and respect for the values we embody as a nation, even beauty, as General Patton famously observed. My mother's life was teaching and art. Her formal military service was only a few years, an instructor, a WASP, and a reservist with the US Air Force, but her statues of the WASP which adorn the Honor Court at the US Air Force Academy, the Highground Veterans Memorial Park, Avenger Field and the National WASP Museum, and presently the College Park Aviation Museum all honor the military service of the women of WWII, all testify to the strength of our nation, the willpower and skill of our citizenry.
Arlington National Cemetery is sacred ground, and the service is carefully and beautifully done. I have attended multiple services, other WASP and family. I may or may not have a reception at the Military Womens Memorial on ANC grounds where I hope to possibly place one of my mother's statues. I am not sure of the requirements at the ANC reception center, usually they need an id, but I do ask that you let me know one way or another if you may attend. There are so many people I have met at all the venues we travelled to together that I wish I could see and enjoy again, and I will think of you as I say a final goodbye to my mother. You need not be here to be fondly remembered –-- it will be a brief moment of memories, which will remain long after that one day --- memories with other memories we all share. Much love to you all!
Albert Z "Chig" Lewis Jr.
[email protected] / (202) 296-1176 / (703) 568-8860
