Sunset parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial

Into August, the U.S. Marine Corps puts on a Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial, near Washington, D.C., each Tuesday evening.  It’s one of those grand events that is free, but difficult to get into because it’s so popular.

For watching, many good seats on the hillside can be found. For perfect photos with the Memorial perfectly framed in the background, get there an hour early.

Well, not difficult to get in — difficult to get a good seat.

Who doesn’t love a parade?

Last Tuesday the parade opened with a selection of numbers from the Marines’ Drum and Bugle Corps (in red coats); they marched off to leave the field for the formal parade, but returned for the close.

The setting is spectacular for watching, with the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol in the background, the stirring statue from the iconic photo, and more men and women in uniform than you can or should shake a sabre at.

Bring your own chair or pad to sit on. We walked over from our hotel in Arlington.  Lots of places to sit among the trees on the hillside to see, and a few thousand other people did the same.  Most of them got there before we did.

Enjoy the show — someone else has probably snapped the perfect picture and you can get it on a postcard.

It was a large, respectful crowd out to watch the Marine Corps Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial, June 19, 2012. Panorama photo by Ed Darrell.  Click on photo for a larger version.