The sidewalks were bottle-necked with people as we proceeded through the entrance of the "closed" WWII Memorial. I didn't know her identity at first when I asked this charming lady to please pose for my camera. I just knew instantly that with the wad of "appropriated" CAUTION ribbon in her hand she embodied the theme of the message our hero Veterans made obvious throughout the day: Some of us were at Iwo Jima, and some of us took Omaha Beach, what will some pretty yellow ribbon do to keep us out of the Memorials you built for us? Do you think we're going to get back on our luxury coach provided to us by Honor Flight and go home?!
Later, I discovered the beautiful lady in the gorgeous white dress in my photo was Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) who believes in and fights for many of the same things as do our Veterans.
These are the same Veterans many of whom for the first--and probably only time--would see the 4,048 gold stars each representing 100 of their comrades who gave their all for world freedom. Too bad the water fountains were turned off and the bathrooms were locked. That part was shameful and embarrassing. But our heroes turned what was meant to be inconvenient into the "best day of our lives."