It’s all in the cadence. The soldiers practice their steps with a metronome, set to 72 beats per minute, the tempo of a slow march. A regal adagio time signature. Being chosen as a tomb guard is a rare honor, and even after training for five to seven months, they practice daily. The soldiers assigned to the duty serve 18-24 months. (There have been three female guards in the past, though there are none now.) After the cemetery closes, groups of them will walk the steps over and over. With perfection as the standard — this is written into the “sentinel’s creed” they learn during training — if they stop a half-inch off their mark and their supervisor sees it, they’ll hear about it.
When the new guard is in place, he is still mindful of his cadence. It governs every step — 21 at a time, the number chosen to echo the honor of a 21-gun salute. Then he turns and faces the tomb for 21 seconds. He swivels to face back down the mat, shifts his weapon to the outside shoulder, waits another 21 seconds, takes another 21 steps. This clean geometry and steady rhythm are traced over and over until he is relieved by another guard change.
“People always ask what we’re thinking,” says [Benton Thames, 24, assistant sergeant of the guard]. “But we’re not really thinking about anything. We’re counting.”
Sunday, May 29, 2011
THE WORLD DOESN'T MATTER HERE, IN THIS OUTDOOR THEATER WHERE THE SHOW ALWAYS GOES ON: The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic, Sarah Kaufmann, visits with the guards at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns to understand their work:
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