Golden Gate Cemetary Visit ...

I went by the Golden Gate National Cemetary today in search of today's picture.

It is a surreal place. You can see the other pictures I took at the flickr page, where you'll get just a hint of how immense this place is.

This particular picture is of the final resting place of a number of amazing men, leaders and heros each.

The first is Admiral Chester Nimitz -- the highest ranking naval officer in WW2. He was the US signer for the peace treaty that ended the war with Japan. After the war, he made the comment that "Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves." Tons more info can be found at his Wikipedia article.

Another is Leo J. Ryan. For those who don't know, Leo Ryan was a congressman from the Bay Area who went to Guyana to investigate the People's Temple Cult in 1978. He was murdered there by members of the cult just before the infamous "Jonestown" mass suicide. What most people don't know about Ryan is that he went to Watts and taught school after the riots to see first-hand the conditions there. He went to Folsom Prison undercover to see those conditions while serving as the chairman of the committee in the state lesiglature that oversaw prison reform. Wikipedia article here

Also in this picture (though his stone is blurred in the background) is Congressional Medal of Honor winner Vito R. Bertoldo, yet another hero who showed tremendous courage and leadership under fire in World War 2. His citation for the CMOH tells far more than I could add. You can read it here