Maybe the point is to suggest they are legit guards with weapons and ammo.
Their protocol may be, “don’t shoot anyone who is not shooting at you” but the point mostly is they are legit soldiers, legit guards with legit weapons and ammo.
The whole thing is not a performance piece. The guards are real guards who are really guarding.
Apparently the Army is coy about whether or not the weapons are loaded but I would bet an extreme amount of money that they aren’t, for the exact same reason that prison guards don’t carry loaded weapons. Having a loaded weapon in a less than ideal defensive situation around a bunch of unpredictable tourists is a huge liability.
In fancy shoes with no radios to call for backup in a hurry. It’s not really an ideal defensive posture.
The rifles are unloaded and the guards are unarmed. The only thing carried on their belt is a sheath for the bayonet. The small guard shack has a phone for emergencies. If someone refuses to listen to the guard, he/she simply calls the commander who notifies the police. Officers from both the National Park Police and the 289th Military Police Company would respond.
When you are marching you are not fighting
When you are guarding a vacant tomb you are not fighting
Some people like to get paid for not fighting
You state this with certainty. Do you have a supporting cite?
My outright WAG is that the guards carry ammunition somewhere on their person. They can load, chamber and even fire said ammunition as the situation warrants and subject to an after action review of their actions by their commanding officer. Given the very public and sensitive nature of their duties, any such review of he guard’s actions would bring the highest levels of scrutiny and demand justification for any such measures. Also given the nature of the guard’s duties, discipline and training, I personally have little doubt that they are trusted to carry live ammunition during their duty shifts with the understanding that they will use it as the situation requires.
:dubious: A crowd of convicts who would like to escape from prison is not the same as a crowd of tourists who have come to observe the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
This Quora response claims that the guards used to carry ammo, but don’t anymore.
Here is a Reddit AMA discussion started by a former Tomb guard. Lots of interesting stuff there, though no confirmation as to whether or not they carry live ammunition. The only meaningful mention is a reference to the FAQ hosted by the Society of the Honor Guard:
The “events in Canada” they refer to is apparently the 2014 terror attack in which a guard at Canada’s National War memorial was shot to death; the guard was carrying an unloaded weapon at the time.
Fair point, the comparison is not perfect, but every tourist site in DC has ample anti-terrorism measures. I don’t think the FBI thinks of tourists like prisoners, but I do think that the anti-terrorism boffins there would be mindful of putting a fully loaded weapon in the vicinity of a potential target, in case a baddie steals it.
I do appreciate your efforts in finding a cite, and I wish there were one being this is GQ and all; I did the same searches and found the some conjecture that you did. But the more I think about it the more I’m certain they don’t carry ammunition. Remember that this is a ceremonial position, and tomb guards are not MPs. I don’t see any evidence that they’re trained in things like crowd control, deescalation tactics, and making lawful arrests. Every other person you see guarding a military installation will be in that service’s police equivalent, and will have training in those areas just like the Park Police who patrol Arlington Cemetery. I know the “everyone is infantry” mentality, but guarding a weapons cache in the AOR and guarding a tourist site in a national park are two very different skillsets. Tomb guards might very well be personnelists or supply clerks who haven’t fired a weapon since boot.
Of course, this being GQ, my certainty doesn’t account for much.
Tomb Guards are exclusively from The Old Guard.
Yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re all 11Bs. Cite. They come from all over the army.
However, they undergo rigorous training after being accepted as a Tomb Guard, which fewer than 50% pass. I would assume that this has something to do with, y’know, guarding the Tomb beyond how to march back and forth. These guys are not just supply clerks. They have specialized training for their assignment.
People in this thread have posted cites about the training involved and my reading of it is that its entirely related to ceremony and knowledge. If you’ve found a cite that says they also get police training that would be fascinating, but I can’t find one.
I would be astonished if the training of a guard did not include how to be a guard.
I think we can agree that they are largely guards in name only, right?
They are honor guards, and honor guards are guarding the honor of the military and not actually providing security. That adjective changes the nature of the job.
It’s a ceremonial position that can be filled by soldiers of almost any background and doesn’t seem to include the sort of police training (or equipment) that would allow a guard to make, say, a civilian arrest. Like Bear_Nenno said, they would go to the guard booth and call the National Park Police if anything happened. There’s no reason for those guns to be loaded except if someone decided that having the weapon be loaded was required in order to properly honor the unknown soldiers. And I can see someone making that argument, but I can also see them being overruled by lawyers and/or anti-terrorism experts.
I think this is a mistake, and was meant to refer to the guard shack on site. Theirs is not a rowdy barracks, by any means, but they are allowed to smile.
AIUI all those who guard the President are Sentinels. (The Army guards, not the Secret Service, that’s a whole other kettle of fish.) If you come from a small town in Arkansas, that may be a lifelong dream and an unimaginable honor. If you’re raised in the DC suburbs, it just sounds like a boring job.
Those who aspire to leave the service and become extremely highly paid body guards would do well to get earn Sentinel status. If you want to leave the Army and join the SS, ditto.
And yes, it denotes exceptional attention to detail, integrity, and self-control. Taking good care of your uniform will not make you a colonel, but being a Sentinel will get you your choice of next assignment. And I would think most colleges would consider it a strong recommendation.
To some narcissists - of the type obsessed with appearance - the job itself and the status are extremely enticing. They especially want to ascend to the job of nitpicking every thread worn by their underlings.
These guys are not wimps or pretty boys. They are the keepers of our nation’s reverence for the sacrifice made by their brothers who die in battle. **Watch this guy get stabbed in the foot without wincing:
**
More info:
Right. I know this is GQ, but suppose (and I really am supposing) that someone got drunk, walked over to the tomb and announced to the guard that he could go fuck himself and started pissing on the Tomb. I’m sure the guard would break character and physically restrain that person to stop him from dishonoring the Tomb. But the subsequent arrest would be by the park police who would be dispatched.
And that is all the more reason for the guard not to be carrying live ammunition. Even if someone walked onto the plaza with a gun and pointed it at the guard, a rifle is a terrible weapon in that situation because of the overpenetration, its bulk, and its possible ability to be taken.
And where do you WAG they keep it? In their pocket? All of that time spent ensuring their uniform is perfect and crease free just to stuff ammo in the pockets?
There are no rounds in the rifle itself as evidenced by the fact that part of the ceremonial inspection involves guard showing the rifle is clear and unloaded.
Deadly force is not authorized for stepping over chains and rails, talking loudly, or even spray painting grafitti on the tomb. Failure to comply with the guard results in real police with real arrest authority showing up. The guard is not there to shoot people.
And where do you WAG they keep it? In their pocket? All of that time spent ensuring their uniform is perfect and crease free just to stuff ammo in the pockets?
There are no rounds in the rifle itself as evidenced by the fact that part of the ceremonial inspection involves the guard showing the rifle is clear and unloaded.
Deadly force is not authorized for stepping over chains and rails, talking loudly, or even spray painting grafitti on the tomb. Failure to comply with the guard results in real police with real arrest authority showing up. The guard is not there to shoot people.
When “how to be a guard” is roughly the equivalent of “how to dial a telephone”, there isn’t much training necessary that hasn’t already been covered during previous training they’ve all received during their career up to that point. Hell, Basic training probably covered most of it.
Tomb guard specific training consists of memorizing the history of the tomb and locations of certain grave sites, preparing the uniform, learning the unique marching movements, and the steps to the ceremony. The difficult part about being a tomb guard is the insane precision of movements, attention to uniform details, and ability to look sharp. Not just sharp, but perfect. To millions of onlookers, they are not in the Army, they are the Army. It is important to have soldiers on display who demonstrate military precision and an exceptional, professional uniformed appearance. It isn’t important for them to be able to fend off vandals or trespassers. There are plenty of other people nearby to do that.
Often, soldiers across the Army are given the task of “Gate Guard” where they are posted at the entrance to the base to check IDs of people trying to enter. They are “guarding” the entire military installation. You might think this would require them to be armed and have special training. You might be astonished to learn that these guards receive zero training to do this and are given no weapons or ammunition. It’s actually not a complicated thing to check an ID and to tell people they can’t enter without it. If anything more complicated than that happens; if someone is belligerent or tries to run the gate, the guard just notifies the DOD Police or the MPs. And that’s for the entire base.
By the end of the first year of service, a soldier has probably “guarded” dozens of things from ammo supply points, to vehicles, entry control points, sensitive items and weapons. Guarding just involves keeping an eye on it and notifying the proper authorities if/when anything unusual occurs.
Hell, even fire guard doesn’t receive special instructions on putting out fires. Their job is to let everyone know there is a fire so that they can all escape and maybe, to call the fire department.
There is no special training to be a “guard”. What’s special about being a Tomb Guard is looking perfect while doing it. The ceremonial performance is what’s so difficult. Guarding itself is quite mundane. It certainly doesn’t involve shooting anyone.