Yesterday I had most of the day for myself. There was a brief meeting, then some emails and paperwork to do, but after that, free! So I called my friend David who lives here and we went to lunch. Then he took me back to his office at Fort McNair to show me around and visit some some. He works at the National War College (part of the National Defense University) and gave me a brief tour of his building before he went to a meeting.

Follow me past the jump for your own tour of the place.

Click all photos to make them bigger…

The War College building itself is about 100 years old, built by Teddy Roosevelt.

Here is the library:

This is a classroom where my friend teaches:

(Nice classroom!)

And here is where Colin Powell used to have meetings with the Joint Chiefs from time to time. (My photo doesn’t do it justice, I’m afraid.)

Fort Lesley J. McNair is one of the oldest in the nation and is where the Lincoln assassination conspirators were tried and hung. (The spot where they were hung is now a tennis court.) The Anacostia and Potomac meet here and you can see the Capital dome and Washington Monument from my friend’s office windows. Nice view!

While my friend had a meeting, I waited in an office down the hall, a very famous office once occupied by George F. Kennan. He wrote “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” (1946), “the single document that best illustrated American anti-communism and general suspicion of Soviet aspirations.”

While I was in there, a Black Hawk (that’s a UH-60 for those of us in the know) landed on the field outside, dropping off some general or other.

I would like to be in that carpool.

It was a nice afternoon full of unexpected history. Thanks David!