Sacrifice Honored In Hallowed Place

"I didn't want to be seated when I received the Purple Heart," said Ramsey, whose wish was not fulfilled.

Lopez was more fortunate. The fractures he sustained in an IED blast in January require him to use a wheelchair, but he was determined to be on his feet, standing at attention, with his mother, wife and children at his side watching him receive the Purple Heart. The location brought the solemnity of history to the occasion, he said.

"I now mean the same as General George Washington's troops meant to him," said Lopez, 23. "It's awesome."

About 200 people filled folding chairs or stood to the side watching the ceremony. Some were relatives of the honored soldiers -- parents and spouses, children and siblings. Others were strangers with a new feeling of fraternity.

"It joins us in one very exclusive club," said Alfred Ortiz of Vienna, who wore one of six Purple Hearts he was awarded over a gruesome 10-month stretch in Korea, his Military Order of the Purple Heart hat and a Purple Heart necktie. "It gives me enormous pride seeing them get it. I know what they had to do to earn it. We all have a common bond for having shed our blood."

Second Lt. Adrian Perez, who lost the sight in one eye in an IED blast at Tal Afar, pondered how things have changed since soldiers such as Ortiz came home from Korea.

"I don't think I deserved this," said Perez, 30, of Washington state. "I was thinking of the guys in the front row in their purple hats, and wondering where their ceremony was."

Klinger, of Frederick, paused to think for a moment of his long journey home.

"I can tell you, you never want to be here," he said after the ceremony.

"Two weeks ago, I saw a photo of a flight evacuation. I remember the experience was grueling. They're the heroes, the ones who helped bring us back here."

When the ceremony ended, the seven soldiers filed past Washington's grave so each could lay one red carnation on the ground.

Groups of tourists who were visiting Mount Vernon for the day stood outside the gates, snapping photographs and explaining to their children the significance of what they were observing.

A woman surrounded by four children was overheard telling them, "Terrorists set bombs, and they blow our men up."