This IS very interesting information, but its also a bit troubling regarding honoring these 'guards' for their commitment and service?...
I'll just roll here a little, not wanting to be a dik like normal, I'm as patriotic and all for pomp and circumstance and honoring the fallen, but just Who came up with these strange parameters a guy has to wonder? No alcohol for Life or Public swearing? Sure, Living in a bunker beneath a graveyard has some benefits, quiet neighborhood and ample parking.......
Certain physical traits required to even qualify? Dressing in front of a full length mirror? Studying and memorizing? Special shoes? So its like a Girls only kind of thing? Except for the No talking or TV rule? What about Facebook and Texting?
I dont know...I can understand giving props to Audie Murphy, he certainly actually did something..but Taft or Joe Louis?....One was merely a heavy bag blowhard who got hisself shot, and the other a heavy bag puncher who didnt? And some poor non alcoholic bastard has to walk around in a rainstorm guarding them? In steel shoes? I dont get it...I dont see how this is equal or sustainable...
Theres all sorts of unsung and unacknowledged American heroes that did amazing things, lived and died honorably that dont get a diddly damn of this kind of remembrance effort...Like Sonny Bono, Harvey Korman, Rock Hudson...
Hell, my own Father in Law was a waist gunner on a B17 and only one of three living crew members who made it back alive, all shot to hell and frostbitten hands trying to keep those Brownings running....He raised a family and died in obscurity like so many others...Nobody guarding his tomb in the weather....
Damn sorry for this ramble...I just wonder who came up with these parameters for the guards?...Sheesh...I betcha a dollar Robert Baden-Powell was involved....I doubt even Forrest Gump could qualify for this kind of duty! ...He could certainly do it mentally and physically, but he likes to talk you know...
Its good and righteous to remember and honor the ones who served and gave it all...Really did something above and beyond, Nathan Hale for instance, or warriors that lived like Audie Murphy and Alvin York, Al Jacobson, Ethan Allen...
But to honor a guy who has never seen a battlefield, happens to be a sharp dressing teetotaler that lives beneath a graveyard, pulls a 1/2hr shift every so often and can count to 21? Hell, why not throw a Parade for the Macys Doorman? He's gotta dress sharp and stand outside in all sorts of weather too for a lot longer than a 1/2hr shift!...
In the terms of things, its undeniable...An Arlington Guard is about the BEST Military duty a guy could ever get! Nobody shooting at you, no jumping out of airplanes, never getting your @ss kicked in a bar fight, and it comes with a Pension! Talk about a Honorable Discharge!
The Arlington guard would be better comprised of retired veterans on a volunteer basis, short term kind of deal, for the ones who actually served in field....Not clerks and professional doormen...
.