National Geographic Episodes on PBS

“Arlington: Field of Honor” follows a day at the national cemetery on the Potomac, “where ritual and respect are woven tightly together,” says narrator Frankie R. Faison. The hour interweaves funerals (including those of a former Vietnam MIA soldier and a soldier who died in Iraq) and the meticulous preparations for them with a thumbnail history of Arlington National, the onetime home of George Washington's step-grandson, whose daughter married Robert E. Lee. President Taft, Joe Louis and Dashiell Hammett are among the notables buried at Arlington, but the most famous person resting here is JFK, who visited the cemetery several months before his assassination. His tour guide recalls the visit: “He said it was so beautiful he could stay here forever.”