[Leica] Leica] RE: Arlington National Cemetery "issues"

[Simon Stevens <simon@camera-craftsman.com>]

>In seconds, we had an enraged [and armed] MP literally screaming for us
to
>halt and calling for additional backup.  It was very eerie hearing the
>vehicle sirens winding through ANC, knowing they were headed for us
while we
>were roughly escorted to the guard building.  5 cars and 10 MPs later,
we
>were given a severe tongue lashing about how ANC is an active military
>facility, how we shouldn't ever take the path we had been using, how we
were
>lucky they didn't throw us in the military brig right now, how they
should
>really confiscate our film *and* cameras, etc.  This went on and on for

>about 30 minutes.

Mitch,

Wow! That's quite an experience. My problem was with one of the
civilians. I was chatting with the honor guard before the ceremony and
they seemed very friendly. But then I already had permission (obtained
the day before) to be doing what I was doing, and to be where I was.

I didn't realize that Arlington was considered an "active military
facility" as such. Obviously Ft. Myer is, but Arlington is open every
day to the public and is hardly on national security importance. Since
most military facilities are also open to the public, it seems to me
like the MudPuppies you encountered were overreacting a bit. Last year I
was taking pictures (with a Leica - on topic) of my old barracks at Ft.
Polk Louisiana and someone asked me what I was doing. But there
certainly wasn't a Starsky and Hutch show like you describe.I wonder if
maybe you accidentally wandered into something else less obvious and
more sensitive, like a VIP visit or something?

My worst experience of the type you describe was when I accidentally
crossed a "restricted area" line on Ramstein AFB when I was stationed in
Germany with the Army. Seems this is an Air Force cardinal "thou shalt
not" rule, but being a dumb grunt, how was I supposed to know that they
have guards there with orders to shoot? Fortunately, the guy who stopped
me asked questions first and let me apologize profusely and leave. The
irony is that at the time I was working VIP protection and was driving a
bullet proof car so shooting at me would have been pretty futile. But
the holes in the shiny Mercedes would have been embarrassing to explain
to my boss.

Simon Stevens