WASHINGTON -- When the sun rises over Arlington National Cemetery today, Christmas morning, a sentinel will be standing watch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
And 9 hours and 27 minutes later, when the sun slips beneath the horizon, a sentry will still be keeping watch over the nation's most hallowed burial site.
Members of the Old Guard, an elite team of soldiers, never leave the grave unattended.
"The tomb is [protected] every minute of every day, going back 79 years," said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle who served as a platoon leader in the Old Guard from 2006-08.
Visitors stream past the sentinels 365 days a year -- 366 if it's a leap year.
"They work New Year's, Christmas, Thanksgiving. All of the holidays," said Old Guard spokesman Russell Fox.
The changing of the guard, which happens every half-hour in the summer and every hour in the winter, has taken place hundreds of thousands of times since July 2, 1937, the day the round-the-clock watch began.
In the evenings, once the cemetery closes, the changing of the guard happens every two hours.
The tomb, which is visited by presidents and foreign heads of state, is located at the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, the site of annual Memorial Day and Veterans Day observances.
A white marble sarcophagus towers over the graves. Three crypts hold the remains of unknown soldiers who fought in World War I, World War II and Korea.
Visitors are expected to stand silently and respectfully.
The sentinels are tall and trim. Their leather shoes are impeccably polished, and their Army dress blue uniforms, adorned with medals, are absolutely unblemished.
When the guard changes, the arriving sentinel is carefully inspected and his weapon is checked.
Each of the sentinel's steps is carefully choreographed, every move is memorized.
"Because of the special nature of the mission, the Army wants its very best soldiers there. ... They want soldiers that have a high degree of discipline and motivation that have demonstrated their performance and so forth," Cotton said.
When the cemetery is open, the sentinels wear wool uniforms. Once it closes, they can wear their tan, gray and green combat uniforms. But even when the public isn't watching, the soldiers stand stiff, straight and silent.
The Old Guard, the U.S. Army's official ceremonial unit, is formally known as the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, and its members perform a variety of duties.
They greet visiting heads of state, escort the commander in chief and march in military parades. They're present for inaugurations and presidential funerals, as well.
They act as honor guards when a warrior's remains are flown to Dover Air Force Base and provide a ceremonial sendoff when veterans are buried at Arlington.
They also assist with wreath-laying ceremonies.
Their schedules are crowded.
"Funeral operations are conducted ... five days a week, every day of the week except for federal holidays. And ceremonies big and small happen pretty much 365 days a year," Cotton said.
Many members of the Old Guard are young. "The enlisted soldiers are recruited straight out of basic training," Cotton said.
Only a few of them end up being tomb sentinels. Those seeking the assignment must apply and complete a two-week trial if they wish to proceed.
Once that's done, they train for months, studying and drilling intensely. They often practice at night, completing exercises at the tomb after the cemetery closes.
For most applicants, the exercise ends in failure. Fewer than one in five makes the final cut.
After months of preparation, the applicants can receive, provisionally, their Tomb Guard Identification Badge. After nine months of successful service, the badge is theirs to keep, provided they avoid scandal.
Fewer than 650 soldiers have received the silver Tomb Guard Identification Badge since its creation in the late 1950s, according to Thomas Tudor, the president of the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
"The sentinels' badge, other than the astronaut badge, is the rarest of military decorations one can earn," said retired Col. Joe Buche, the former regimental commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment and a Fayetteville native.
Under the Code of Federal Regulations, former guards can be stripped of the badge if they engage in "inappropriate conduct" -- even if it occurs long after their guard service.
The society lists 23 badges that have been revoked.
Keeping watch over the tomb isn't easy.
"It's a different kind of stress than a soldier would face on the battlefield, but it is nonetheless highly stressful, and we hold them to the highest standards," Buche said.
The job can be "very, very hard physically, mentally and emotionally," said former Old Guard member Bill Brown, now an Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield regional executive from Jonesboro.
But it was humbling for a kid from Woodruff County to be able to stand watch, he said.
"I remember so well watching the older vets come up and placing their hand over their heart and weeping through the changing of the guard," he said. "You figure out real quick that what you do means a lot to those men and those women who have served that come and watch you show honor to our fallen."
The weather was sometimes a challenge, Brown said. In summer, the wool uniform would soak up sweat. In the winter the temperatures would plummet.
"Thank God," he said, "for the springtime and fall."
Marcus Mayville, a 55-year-old Fort Smith post office clerk and former tomb guard, said freezing was harder than boiling.
"When your fingers get cold and they get numb, there's nothing you can do to fix that," he said.
But truly bad weather tended to boost morale, not undermine it, he said.
"Being infantrymen as we all were, the worse the environment, the more we got psyched up for it. So if we knew there was a thunderstorm coming, we were like, 'Let's go do this. Let's go show these unknowns what we're really here for,'" he said. "Anybody can do it when it's really nice outside, but when the weather really goes sour, that's where it proves that you really want to do it."
Mayville, who served at the tomb from 1988-90, said the ceremony is important and moves participants as well as observers.
"To the public, it's special because they get to pay honor to those few soldiers that lost not only their lives but their identities during their conflict. To me it was special because it was the highest peacetime honor that I could bestow upon a soldier who had given their life," he said. "To me, it was the highest way that I could say thank you to them."
Buche, the former regimental commander, said the sentinels and other members of the Old Guard are highly visible and have an important role in American life.
"They're the example of the Army to the nation and the world, but what they do is they represent literally the hundreds of thousands of other troopers around the world who are performing other missions and doing other things at other times that are entirely essential to our nation's existence," he said.
Metro on 12/25/2016