You’re creating a false dichotomy. He can indeed be a “real” guard. That doesn’t mean he’s the only person guarding the scene.
I’m not sure how that can be guarding the tomb is an Army function. The Marines are not involved. Marines from the DC barracks can be involved in other functions in Arlington from time to time but tomb guard is all Army.
What is it you think he has the authority to do? He can’t arrest anyone. He can’t detain anyone. He can only use deadly force in self-defense. He can’t shoot someone for touching the Tomb or talking loudly. He has no authority to do anything other than call the police when someone is misbehaving. Giving the guard live ammo is not going to change the fact that he has no authority to use it unless someone is actually trying to kill him.
Also, there is a reason why police and armed security guards aren’t patrolling with M14s and bayonets. As a personal defense weapon goes, it’s a pretty shitty choice. If we wanted to give the Tomb Guards an armed police function, we would need to give them more than just bullets for their rifles. A pistol and some hand cuffs at a minimum, I’d think. And then maybe a radio to communicate with dispatch. Perhaps some body armor. Hmmm… they start looking less and less like a spit-and-polish Honor Guard now, don’t they?
Some clarifications:
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I was talking about inspections and guard duty in general, not just the TUS. The TUS sentinels don’t load their rifles after the inspection, but guards on duty at other places might depending on what they’re guarding.
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My comment about the sentinels having M17s was a brain phart – I know the sentinels don’t carry pistols, but I apparently had “live rounds” on the brain, slapped it in, and scrambled the syntax. I meant to say “…even though the sentinels don’t have M17s, the Sergeant of the Guard probably has live rounds in his.”
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I wasn’t saying that the presentation M17s were the only pistols the guards had ever had throughout history, just that they were special (“now” meaning since 2018). Everybody was focused on the M14s and didn’t seem aware that the Sergeant of the Guard/Commander of the Relief carries a pistol.
This is a formal apology to Bear_Nenno. I had based my assumption on the opinion that someone in the Army – people handle small arms as a living – would know better than to *pretend * to load a weapon. Apparently I was wrong. Years ago I had a friend who carried a .357 in his glovebox and during an altercation over a parking spot he got it out and was waving it around. He was disappointed when the other guy did not back down. I asked him, “Wait. You were truly ready to shoot someone over a parking space?”
“Oh, it wasn’t loaded.”
“… You’re an idiot.”
The guy in the video, not some nugget right out of basic training but presumably several cuts above, is an idiot.
Honestly, if they are to be guards in the ceremonial sense only, I don’t know why they aren’t issued a plugged M1903 Springfield like the one I lugged around in boot camp. They can be made just as pretty and are even more traditional looking than the M14.
I’m sure he is a real guard to the extent that he would break character and physically detain someone if they sprinted across the plaza with a bottle of spray paint. Probably take the person to the ground with extreme prejudice. After that, the actual police would show up and book the person into the county jail on whatever charges were applicable (e.g. trespass, attempted vandalism of a monument, whatever applies).
But I understood your objection to be that he needed a loaded rifle in order to be a more “real” guard. Having a loaded rifle in that scenario would cause far more harm than good. As Bear_Nenno said, he can’t just splatter the tourist’s guts all over the plaza for simple trespass or even for defacing the Tomb. He could only use deadly force for defense of himself or others against deadly force threatened.
A rifle is a terribly inefficient weapon for that in an area littered with tourists. And if he is surprised and has the weapon taken, then you have just given a crazy person a fully loaded M14 in Arlington National Cemetery.
If not carrying a weapon makes him less than a “real” guard, then you have to issue him a pistol, handcuffs, a backup radio, and a taser, all of which takes away from the ceremonial nature of the post which is the only purpose it is installed for in the first place. A short walk away is JFK’s tomb. There is no guard there, real or otherwise. There is no need for a “real” guard at the Tomb. It is ceremony.
The Old Guard provides escorts for The President of the United States. It also provide guards for foreign heads of states. I doubt that the members of this elite unit are considered likely to use a loaded weapon indiscriminately.
Reality can be stranger than fiction:
India and Pakistan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0ue-XGl9c
Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFWmADWAYbI
The escorts they provide for the president involve marching, playing fifes and drums, blowing bugles, marching in parades and performing in ceremonies. They do not pull security details like the way you seem to be implying. The presidential guard, or Escort to the President is a ceremonial unit that still wears continental Army uniforms. They’re an unarmed marching band. They don’t actually guard the president. If a riot or terrorist attack breaks out, some of the Old Guard would be used to assist local authorities, but that’s not a common occurrence. They don’t guard foreign heads of state either. They provide “escort” services, as in “parades”, marching and ceremonial functions. They are not escorts in the sense of being body guards. The protection of foreign dignitaries is handled by either the US Secret Service or the US Diplomatic Security Service, depending on how important the person may be. They are not guarded by the Old Guard. They might receive an “escort”, as in they will get a nice parade and welcoming ceremony. But that’s the extent of the Old Guard’s involvement.
The Old Guard are not an elite group providing executive protection to the President. They are a ceremonial unit that performs parades, funerals, and national ceremonies. They are insanely good at it; perhaps the best in the world. But being good at the latter doesn’t make them decent at the former.
But Tomb Guards and similarly organized/dedicated ceremonial units of rifle monkeys are generally straight out of basic training. He was almost certainly on his first tour of his first enlistment, along with just about every other tomb guard (as in, excepting those assigned as NCOs and officers, and therefore not personally standing post in front of spectators). I don’t know how or why people get it into their heads that the soldiers/airmen/marines/sailors they see twirling rifles around as part of ceremonial units (be they drill teams, tomb guards, that guy who stands next to the helicopter and salutes the President as he boards, or full military honors funeral escort details at Arlington) are seasoned veterans. They’re generally not (again, excepting their NCOs and officers). There are better things for seasoned veterans to do than twirl a rifle around. Yes, even “be put in charge of people who twirl a rifle around” rates higher than “twirl a rifle around.”
And for all you know, racking the bolt is a prescribed method to draw someone’s attention to them, a sort of “punctuation” to draw the deviant’s attention to them and make it abundantly clear that, “Yes, I’m talking to you, and no, I’m not happy.”
I stand corrected. I remember him as being a Marine, but I am clearly mistaken. He was still a huge man. He made everyone else there appear tiny in comparison.
On a related note, can women be Sentinels?
There have been a few. The first was in 1997. One of the main limiting factors is that the physical requirements are the same. They must be at least 5’10”.
Tomb guards are not straight out of basic. They tried to recruit me into the Old Guard from my unit in Germany. Given the length of training it takes to take The Walk it doesn’t seem possible to be less than a specialist by the time they earn the badge.
They are actual guards regardless of how they are armed. An honor guard is a guard, full stop.
I know you really want this to be some sort of “gotcha” about a good guy with a gun being the only effective sort of security, but it’s just not happening. An honor guard is not equivalent to a security guard without consciously trying to elide the distinction.
This morning I discovered TodayIFoundOut and one of the links was to this video, How do They Decide Who Gets to Guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?. It’s very informative for a 10’ video.
Personally, I think all the ceremony surrounding that tomb is a bit much. Every one of the service members interred deserves, IMHO, respect. No more, no less.
Good thing they are armed with pistols then.
Take the time to watch this video of the changing of the guard. The relief commander - the soldier who oversees the changing of the guard - definitely is armed with a (holstered) pistol. However, the sentinels who are out there doing the hour-long marches are clearly not armed with pistols.
Very cool - thanks!