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FOX 8 – The soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery are part of one of the most elite outfits in the U.S. Army.
They guard the tomb 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in every kind of weather. On days like Memorial Day, their job becomes especially important.
One of the Tomb Sentinels, Specialist Nate Chartier, explained what it’s like to be part of this unique unit.
“It’s an honor being able to work in Arlington Cemetery.
There’s some days where you get that like hair raising on the back of your neck feeling that like this is just right, that it’s just perfect, that you wouldn’t want to work anywhere else for the rest of your life.
Everyone will to work on each other’s uniforms evenly.
You’ll have somebody else around you, taping you off, making sure there’s no lint debris.
It may not look as good or look uniform to the other soldiers on the plaza.
The reason why some of us may have certain things going on at the door is because it just works for us during training to
kind of calm us down before we go out the door.One of those things that just gives you motivation.
You’re like, ‘hey, I’m just going to crush this guard change. This guard change is going to be amazing.’
You have the sun hitting the plaza and then, with it being so bright, it bounces off and hits you back and it just feels like the temperatures even warmer than it is, like if you’re in regular clothes.
I did not think I was ever going to be guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
I want people to realize that that their freedom isn’t free.
It really isn’t.
You have thousands of soldiers died for our country.
I don’t look at it as three unknown soldiers that I’m guarding.
I’m guarding the 300,000 plus soldiers that gave their life for this country.”