Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetary

Imprimis ^ | 4/9/2019 | Tom Cotton

[Sequoyah101]

Nothing interferes with The Old Guard’s mission in Arlington—and when I say nothing, I mean nothing, not even 9/11. On that beautiful morning, the 9 o’clock funerals were underway when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, blasting debris across Washington Boulevard into the cemetery’s southeastern corner. The Old Guard’s Medical Platoon rushed to the scene, becoming the first soldiers to deploy to a battlefield in the War on Terror. Yet those funerals continued. So did the 10 o’clock funerals. And the 11 o’clock funerals. Over the next month, even as hundreds of Old Guard soldiers pulled guard duty at the Pentagon and carried remains from the crash site, funerals never stopped in Arlington.

No one summed up better what The Old Guard of Arlington means for our nation than Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey. He shared a story with me about taking a foreign military leader through Arlington to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sergeant Major Dailey said, “I was explaining what The Old Guard does and he was looking out the window at all those headstones. After a long pause, still looking at the headstones, he said, ‘Now I know why your soldiers fight so hard. You take better care of your dead than we do our living.’”

[Sequoyah101]

Senator Tom Cotton made these remarks as part of a talk given at Hillsdale College.

God forbid that we should all ever fail or forget our traditions of respect and honor and all the other many things that made us good. Add your own but our traditions deserve to live on. They have endured the tests and challenges of people at least equal to the brightest of this day. They can only be rejected out of hand or refuted by dishonesty.

I think Senator Cotton, who excelled his way from a small Arkansas town, has done an outstanding job of telling this story. I'd like to share it with you this Memorial Day.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/sacred-duty-soldiers-tour-arlington-national-cemetery/?utm_campaign=imprimis&utm_source=housefile&utm_medium=email&utm_content=aprilmay2019sacredduty&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_O9nRRSHXtciGc8uHLvOI9NcR-OA5OkO_bcB0eYZATOmRDYnAp3-CgyLL9QnLelbnCgCLz1ScMwQj9rSqDJ9XI4-J7f-7G93ynd4CH5n4Gm6gbRrY&_hsmi=72653428

[Joe Boucher]

For 2 years i was stationed at Fort Myers while i worked at the Pentagon.
It was during Vietnam. There is a 2 foot brick wall between Arlington and Fort Myers.
General Lee’s old plantation was too busy then.

[Hot Tabasco]

Interesting, just yesterday I signed up for Hillsdale’s free internet lecture series............

[Oatka]

Nothing interferes with The Old Guard’s mission in Arlington

And on and on and . . .

[Freedom4US]

Several years ago several of us at Helicopter repair school at Ft. Eustis took a trip up to Washington city and took in all the sights - Capitol, WH, Smithsonian, Ford’s Theater etc. Changing of the guard was impressive.

It’s actually spelled “Cemetery” btw.

[Sequoyah101]

Yes, you are of course correct.

[Sequoyah101]

Of course it is cemetEry.