About the Book:

Most Americans have heard of Arlington, though many will not know the name applies to more than our national military cemetery—located across the Potomac River  from the National Capital—but also to a histor ical residence and to a county in northern Virginia.

This booklet will reveal the source of the name for all three, as well as important developments that occurred in each.

About the Author: 

Since his retirement from the Army in the early 1960s, the author has resided in Arlington and has been active in civic affairs.  He is a past president of the County Civic Federation and the Historical Society.  Pratt practiced law briefly after his retirement and then began working at the Federal Communication Commission in Washington as an attorney until he retired from the Civil Service in 1978.  During the following years, he was active with veterans’ organizations and served on a committee to raise money for and establish the Korean War Veterans memorial on the Mall. 

Pratt’s military career includes combat service in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany in World War II and in Korea through fifteen campaigns with the infantry for a total of four years on the front lines.  He was commissioned on the battlefield in France and promoted to the rank of captain in only three months, a record in the war.  Pratt has numerous military decorations including the Purple Heart.  His last tour of army duty was in the Secretary of the Army’s office in the Pentagon as a Congressional Liaison Officer.

Pratt’s writings include Decisive Battles of the Korean War, and Autobahn to Berchtesgaden, accounts of two wars from a participant’s perspective.  He has written for the travel section of the Washington Post, the Retired Officers Association Magazine and various other publications.  He is also past editor of Graybeards, the official newsletter of the Korean War Veterans Association and the Mustang, the newsletter of the National Order of Battlefield Commissions.

Pratt resides in South Arlington with his wife Anastasia.  His children, Christine and Paul, live in Florida.  He once made an eight month, 25,000 mile overland trip by sports car through deserts and jungles, sometimes on the roads, from Cairo to Capetown, believed to be the only such trip in history.