Now this truly feels good
We all know about 3rd Infantry’s Old Guard. Some of us have past or present friends in the unit, or have been honored with their services at funerals for loved ones. Their dedication is the stuff of legend, deservedly so.
As powerful wind gusts whipped trees on the grounds of the Arlington National Cemetery, a lone soldier continued their watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Saturday as rain lashed the area during severe storms.
Soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard,” stand watch over the Tomb of the Unknown 365 days a year, even in horrible weather.
On Saturday, the Tombs Guards, or Sentinels, continued their watch as hurricane-force winds roared through the Washington D.C. area. Winds uprooted trees in the District and caused widespread damages.
Yeah, Gen Z produced the man-bun soi-bois we love to mock, not to mention their sexually confused kin. But some of our best are also in this age group, and doing the job we want and need them to perform. Props to the lads who stood their posts through the storm and the rest of the year!
Category: Army, Feel Good Stories
There will always be good men and good in man. As long as the good outweighs the bad we’ll be OK.
A salute to those who serve.
Saw this video on the news as they were reporting on the storm in DC. No mention of the sentinel going about his or her duty.
Kudos to this individual and and the rest who perform this duty.
👍
God Save The Queen… oh.. wait…
Is there going to be ice cream.
Come on MAN, I’m the Big Guy!
That look you get, when you get Climate Change in your Depends.
Some Sentinels have made the ultimate sacrifice. I was fortunate to have interacted with one, SSG Adam Dickmyer, once or twice. I was with Alpha Company on McNair while the rest of the Regiment was on Myer, so I didn’t know him well, but he was well-known throughout the Regiment.
It takes a lot of attention to detail, patience, and the willingness to put up with, let’s call it nonsense, to become a permanent Tomb Badge holder. I had a Squad Leader who’d started the training cycle at least twice, but as a combat tested SSG couldn’t get past the fact that even a PFC with a Tomb Badge is considered higher on the totem pole. From what I understand, Ranger Regiment is similar, with non-Tab holders essentially being subordinate to those with Tabs, meaning a high-speed but fairly new PFC is held in higher regards than a SPC.
The 3rd US Infantry Regiment “The Old Guard” changed a lot from the time I first served in 2004-2008 to my abbreviated second stint in 2018-2019. The Tomb and other Specialty Platoons experience relatively little change, and that’s evident by someone like Mike Glover (retired SF SGM who started his career as a Tomb Guard) going through the Changing of the Guard inspection fairly recently, still showing that all these years later he’s got the routine and precision down.
Glover was a good dude.
CINCGUARD!
“Commander-in-Chief’s Guard, Take Care, Attention!” (“and…one, and two”). I watched some footage a buddy’s wife uploaded to Facebook of his recent retirement. Never knew him previously, though he’d spent somewhere around 8 years on the US Army Drill Team, but we worked for MDW at the same time before both coming down on orders to PEO Soldier. He’d also served in A Co, albeit when it was already part of 4-3 Infantry Battalion (I left right after 4th BN was stood up). It threw me off hearing the count man nearly shouting. We used to have the count man call it just loud enough for the CINC platoon to hear. When I went back, the 3x9s (Dress Blue formations) still had the quiet count, but I guess that it just adds to the experience for Alpha Company. I wonder if they give the “And, Snap (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Snap!)” count so loud when conducting left wheels for Pass in Review.
Looking for the “ready, cut.” (Drill team, 86-90…)
“And snap” – that’s funny. Be a while.
Never understood the re-flag shit. Made it odd to me, but that’s just me.
Truly, the Best of The Best…and rightly so. Their dedication to Duty and the Sacrifices they make to preform their Duty is second only to the Sacrifice made by the ones they guard.
Much respect for the troops of TOG. Salute!
Those are some very special men and women.
I was honored to have a former Old Guard as a supervisor in a former IT job.
Nothing but respect for him and his brothers in the Old Guard.
Hmm, does he happen to share a name with a certain Country Music singer? Our BDE S6 had such an E7 with an EIB, and when I asked him about it, come to find out he’d served in TOG as an 11B. I think he was one of those who had a couple of longish tours, from what I recall family medical issues got him a compassionate reassignment and he’d spent something like 12 years there, ending up having to reclassify for medical reasons. It takes a toll on your body after a few walks in Arlington, standing on Summerall Field and in Conmy Hall for hours on end, and doing everything else that only TOG Soldiers experience.
Believe they are still on the same training rota as they were when a buddy, Walt Kist, was there around 1980. They still had to do all the standard Infantry training and testing – but due to the ceremonial season lasting through all the quasi- tolerable weather in spring, summer, and fall, the Old Guard did all of theirs in the dead of winter.
On average, we did a General Officer ceremony and a Department of the Army Retirement once a month, and a Foreign Dignitary Arrival ceremony every 2-3 (or so) months. Then there’s Cordon and Wreath Laying ceremonies. We also had Spirit of America every fall and still have Twilight Tattoo every Spring/Summer. Expert Infantryman Badge testing would usually be in fall, and one year they had another EIB test in February. I got there in Fall 2004 and, like most of the others who’d recently redeployed and were new arrivals from FORSCOM, was immediately tossed into the high OPTEMPO conditions that is TOG.
Within a month of reporting, I was in the Regimental Orientation Program, getting yanked out of Week 4 (now it’s 3 weeks, used to be a 4th week of tactical stuff like OC certification, ranges, shoot houses, and the CS chamber) to earn my EIB. Two months after reporting, my EIB was pinned on the pocket flap below my CIB, and I immediately went into ceremonial mode. Back then, Tuesdays usually had no scheduled Full Honors funerals, so 1st Platoon, which marched CinC and Escort, was booked with GO/DA/Arrivals. Oh, and Inauguration activities started around the same time, so any given week I might be in Blues marching through Arlington, in wig-and-tights in Conmy Hall, or in stripped Blues as a State-and-Territorial Flag Bearer at one of the pre-inaugural events.
Fun times, and great Soldiers. Unfortunately, Alpha Company has lost a number of men with whom I had the privilege of serving with. Hake (26, KIA Iraq), Hernandez (24, KIA Afghanistan, and first enlisted Soldier to receive Full Honors), McCotter (26, cancer), Benedict (liver disease, 30s), Mauritz (unknown, 30s), Keyworth (42, traffic accident). I hate logging into Facebook because it seems like another old Rakkasan or Old Guard comrade is lost regularly.
I agree that there are mostly good people in every generation, but it does seem to get fewer and fewer by the decades. My late Dad (WWII era Army cannon cocker) was my example to follow through for every aspect of life. However, aside from being a great husband and father, his work ethic impressed me particularly so. He was a Chief Electrician for a local VA Hospital and when I was a kid, I remember him leaving the house for work one morning in a very bad snowstorm in his car, but returning about an hour later saying the street were impassable. So, he put on a higher pair of snow boots and a heavier winter coat and left the house again for the 4 mile walk to work in the deep snow. The man was dedicated through and through. I learned very early on what it meant to have a strong work ethic, but the new generations of people that I work with today, generally do not have anything close to resembling that sort of work ethic. I guess its only going to get worse.
I have to ask – how do they keep their barracks covers on their gourds in such high winds, and if it blows off, what do they do then?
Super glue and velcro?
The Army Blue Service Cap has a drop-down chin strap, and if a Sentinel should happen to have it blow off during inclement weather, the Sergeant of the Guard would retrieve it.
This, TOG Soldiers wear two chin straps, with the rear one uused for high-wind situations and for color guards and flag bearers.
Former Old Guardsman here. Proud of my time there. I spent most of it on the Army Drill Team in the same barracks as the Tomb Guard sentinels and there was a significant but friendly rivalry between us. They did simplicity with the utmost perfection while we did complex but to a lesser degree of perfection. People like Tomb Guards and Drill Team typically go on to succeed at most things they try in life.
To their credit, the Old Guard also never abandoned or wavered at their post on 9/11.
I don’t believe there ever was a time the Tomb went unguarded.
I take pride in the fact that the Old Guard was headquartered here in Minnesota at Fort Snelling during WWI, and trained our Minnesota boys for overseas duty.