National Memorial Day Concert

We decided to check out the National Memorial Day Concert that PBS put on at the National Mall the day before Memorial Day.  We knew it would be crowded so we went a couple hours early to get a good spot.  We maneuvered ourselves toward the front of the public section and had a nice little picnic.  We were lucky enough to be in the shade, which is a must for my complexion.  We saw Nancy Pelosi greeting the soldiers, while we waited.

The concert was good.  Gary Sinise and Joe Montegna were the hosts and they had a Broadway star, Kelli O'Hara, Yolanda Adams, and Lionel Richie sing patriotic songs and the National Symphony Orchestra played.  Gary Sinise and Dennis Haysbert (the guy from the All State commericals) did a reading from soldiers in the Korean war, the vet who survived was there.  I really  liked  the focus they had on the "forgotten war" because I haven't really heard much about it.

Brad Paisley was set up on a stage that was to our left and there were walls in the way so we couldn't see what  was going on so some people were going around to the front and back of the stag to see the concert. I encouraged Albert to go and take some pictures,  which he gladly did. 

Albert found that he was conveniently trapped in a really good spot for the rest of the concert.  A.J. Cook and Blythe Danner gave a reading of a woman who lost her husband in Iraq who met up with another woman on-line who had lost her husband in Vietnam.  They talked about how the younger woman was able to help other widows.  The women were both there.  There was more singing by Lionel Richie and an opera singer named Katherine Jenkins. They played all the songs from the various branches of the military as the color guards marched.

As the concert wrapped up Albert finally came back and was very excited to tell me that he had shook hands with Colin Powell as he was shaking hands with the Korean vets.  Very cool.  We then ran up to the stage and watched the stars close-up as they chatted and took group pics.  I highly recommend going next year if you haven't had the pleasure.