Army Marks 100 Years of Unbroken Guard at Tomb of the Unknowns
Army Maj. Gen. Fox Conner ordered an armed military guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on 24 March 1926, and it has been maintained with honor ever since.
The Tomb, located at Arlington National Cemetery, was dedicated on Armistice Day (now Veterans Day) in 1921, but was at first unguarded. Responding to concerns that the site was not receiving the proper respect from tourists, Conner, then the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army, ordered a guard drawn from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment at nearby Fort Myer (now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall). The original day guard was extended to a round-the-clock watch in 1937.
Since then, the “Old Guard” of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment has performed the Tomb Sentinel duty, and the original Great War-era Tomb has been joined by an Unknown Soldier from WWII in 1946 and a Korean War Unknown in 1958.
Today, a single M14-armed volunteer Sentinel stands guard over the Tomb at any given moment, with two reliefs rotating on a 24-hour shift. The Sentinels are changed every hour (on the hour) in winter months (October through March), and every half hour during the warmer months from April through September.
In an ode to the 21-gun salute to the Unknowns, as described by Arlington National Cemetery, “The Tomb Guard marches exactly 21 steps down the black mat behind the Tomb, turns, faces east for 21 seconds, turns and faces north for 21 seconds, then takes 21 steps down the mat and repeats the process.”
The two relief Sentinels, along with two (E-5) Assistant Relief Commanders and a sidearm-carrying (E-6) Relief Commander, are on duty in their quarters under the Memorial Room of the Tomb’s Amphitheater. The pistol is loaded with a 21-round magazine.
Since 2018, the Relief Commanders have carried specially made ceremonial SIG Sauer P320 M17 9mm pistols that carry a high-polish DLC coating and are filled with details honoring their task– while still being functional. They replaced a set of Beretta-made M9s, which were used by the guard since 1988, walking on over 11,000 consecutive days.
Each of the current four pistols bears a name — Silence, Respect, Dignity, or Perseverance— which is featured on the dust cover. The wood grip panels come from the decking of the old cruiser USS Olympia, which brought the Great War Unknown from France in 1921. The removable optics plate is engraved with a copy of the Greek Figures featured on the east panel of the Tomb, representing Peace, Victory, and Valor, repeated on the magazine floor plates. The front sight contains a vial of marble dust collected from the Tomb of the Vietnam Unknown in 1998 when he was disinterred for identification. The cocking serrations on the slide are engraved “XXI” in an ode to the 21-gun salute. Further, they all use a serial number which includes “02JUL37”, the date the guard went 24-hours.
