Sentinels brave Hurricane Sandy to stand guard at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier...

[ROUSH8692]

So is life in prison without parole.

True!

 

[Phoenix]

They're (obviously) a pretty good bunch of guys.

My daughter dated one for a while.

We got to visit their changing room underneath.

If they see someone out in the audience they know they have a way of signaling them to know that they see them-- very subtle of course.

The lad my daughter was dating had been a tomb guard for several years. He finally switched jobs because doing the tomb guard thing was making a mess out of his knees and back.

They have a height-requirement thing for that particular job too...

All the ones I met or saw were at least 6'1".

Talk about timing. Sat next to a guy at the bar last night, and he said he was the first Afro American guy in this unit, back in the early 70s. He said it is really easy duty actually as they only have to stand out there for like 30 minutes at a time. And regarding height - he said that there *is* a minimum, but that they do have what amounts to platform shoes that make you 4 inches taller.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

Talk about timing. Sat next to a guy at the bar last night, and he said he was the first Afro American guy in this unit, back in the early 70s. He said it is really easy duty actually as they only have to stand out there for like 30 minutes at a time. And regarding height - he said that there *is* a minimum, but that they do have what amounts to platform shoes that make you 4 inches taller.

Unless his name was Fred Moore and it somehow slipped his mind that he was off by ohhh, only a DECADE, he was lying through his teeth!

First African-American Tomb Guard recalls journey

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Feb. 24, 2012) -- In honor of African-American History Month, Fred Moore, the first African-American Tomb Guard, recalled his journey from serving as a firing party member in Honor Guard Company in 1960, to making history a year later.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

And this doesn't exactly look like what I'd consider "really easy duty".

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