Long before Arlington’s stillness is broken each day by the drone of tour buses and visitors, before traffic jams snarl surrounding highways, soldiers with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment — the Old Guard — are on duty.



Activated in 1784, the Old Guard changed shape and names several times early on. The name that finally stuck was bestowed by Gen. Winfield Scott during a victory parade in Mexico City in 1847. Today the Old Guard is responsible for the Army’s ceremonial duties, including two of the most publicly visible missions at Arlington: manning the horse-drawn caisson for full-honors funerals and guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Soldiers, mostly infantrymen, are up before the sun, washing horses and polishing brass and leather tack in a barn at nearby Fort Myer. The riders for the day arrive a little later and head to a dressing room to prepare their uniforms and polish their boots. Outside, tack teams clean the caissons and touch up any scuffs. As the sun rises, the six-horse teams are hitched to the caisson bearing a flag-draped coffin. Before they mount up, the section leader inspects his fellow riders’ uniforms, using a ruler to spot the smallest of imperfections.



“Everything behind the scenes that it takes to make one full-honors funeral work, it’s amazing, really, when you see it all come together,” says Capt. Devin Osburn, caisson platoon leader. “Countless hours of practice, preparation, drilling and the uniform standards, they have to be perfect. All of the tack the horses are wearing is constantly cleaned, shined.”



By 9 a.m., they’re are on the move, the clacking of the horses’ hooves and the rumble of the caisson’s wood and iron wheels echoing among Fort Meyer’s old brick buildings. Between the two teams, they will conduct eight funerals a day in all manner of weather conditions, striving to present grieving families with the comfort of ceremony and tradition. “I take a lot of pride being around this platoon — the guys, they work so hard and go the extra mile for the families,” Osburn says. “Being able to push through the cold weather, the hot weather to make sure your formation or you yourself look the best you possibly can says a lot for this whole installation.”

A mile away, at the Tomb of the Unknowns, Spc. Steven Carr pivots to face east and takes 21 steps. Sharply clicking his heels, he holds his position for 21 seconds, pivots left to face north and again holds for 21 seconds. Sgt. 1st Class Tanner Welch, sergeant of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, explains that the 21 steps allude to the 21-gun salute, the highest honor bestowed upon a service member. “It’s our way of giving the Unknowns a 21-gun salute all day in silence,” he says.



Beneath the Memorial Amphitheater exhibit hall, the Old Guard’s sentinels prepare for the next 30-minute shift. Several new soldiers, still in training, help Spc. Sam Barnett prepare for duty. They adjust his belt and blouse, making the crisply pressed blues even more formfitting than intended. Another sentinel-in-training uses masking tape to collect stray specks of dust. Welch says that while the Old Guard holds itself to high standards, the Tomb Sentinel Platoon takes it even further. Line six in the Sentinel’s Creed neatly summarizes this sentiment: “My standard will remain perfection.”



“It’s a hefty responsibility,” Welch says, “but it’s very rewarding. Myself and several members of the platoon have friends interred here at Arlington National Cemetery, so having that responsibility is very near and dear to our hearts.”



Sentinels stand guard at the tomb 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s been that way since July 2, 1937. That duty has fallen exclusively to the Old Guard since 1948. “I have no doubt in my mind,” Welch says, “that the three Unknowns out there would not mind losing some sleep, not mind sweating it out in the summer or shivering it out in the winter out there to have an opportunity to do it. Everything we do pales in comparison to what was taken from them and the hundreds of thousands of others who have given their life, given everything, in the service to their country.”