On watch

For Veteran’s Day, my offering to you is visual—members of the 3^rd Infantry Regiment standing watch over the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

They do it around the clock and every day of the year, regardless of the weather, as you can see.

There are plenty of videos of the changing of the guard, which is indeed a moving ceremony. But I like the image of the lone sentinel standing watch over the dead, no matter what the weather.(And from the YouTube information I'm kind of extrapolating that a mother shot it of her son.)

Yeah—I’d rather we spent money to send our men and women into harm’s way with the best equipment and protective gear, and then give them adequate medical care and emotional support when they return to The World. And it pains me that, even as they were placing the first Unknown in the tomb in 1921, we as a nation have fallen short on this (with the possible exception of World War II).

But I also recognize the symbolic value of this ritual. It is beautiful to watch—peaceful, reassuring somehow. Those measured steps, the pauses, the focus.

I also find the placement of the tomb exquisitely appropriate, as you look beyond it onto the city of D.C. Which means that the Unknowns—and their sentinels—are metaphorically watching over our seat of government. However high or low regard you may have for the current components of that government, it’s rather nice to know that these soldiers are still doing the job they signed on to do.