Guarding the Tomb

The weatherman leaned into the wind. The foamy surf crashed around him as another gust whipped sand and salt spray into the poor guy’s face. Whatever he was being paid, it wasn’t enough.  Apparently there was some unwritten rule that to properly cover a natural disaster, you had to stand out in the middle of it.  It was good TV, just not good sense.  Jack flipped the station over to Sportscenter and laughed at the oxymoron. Good TV.

The East Coast of the United States was under siege. Political junkies always talked about the “October Surprise.”  One week before the Presidential election, Hurricane Sandy was definitely a nasty surprise.  The eastern half of the United States was feeling its wrath.  It had been hyped as “Frankenstorm” and was living up to the hysteria.   Sixty-million Americans were now in harm’s way. This was predicted to be a 100-billion dollar storm.   Already the replica ship HMS Bounty had been sunk (the ship used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies).  The Jersey Shore was about to be washed over. New York City faced a calamity not seen since 2001. Cities as far west as Chicago were facing gale-force winds. Jack pulled on his pants and buttoned his uniform. Storm or no storm, he had work to do.  He spied his umbrella.  With winds blowing near hurricane force, he left it where is was.  Nothing was more useless than an umbrella during a hurricane.

Heavy rain lashed his barracks as he left.  Everyone else was hunkered down. But not Jack.  It was a little before dawn; normally there would have been a slight pink hue off toward the Cheasapeake Bay.  Not today. It was dark.  The wind cutting through the trees sounded like a jet engine at take off.

Jack wore the second-rarest badge in the Army (the rarest being the Army Astronaut Badge.) He was a sentinel. He was a guard of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, located on Robert E. Lee’s former plantation Arlington, had been guarded continuously since April 6, 1948.  Today would be no different.  Hurricane Sandy be damned.

Army’s 3^rd Infantry Regiment took over guarding the tomb after World War 2.  A soldier, like Jack,  stood guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. And hurricanes.

Jack would stand out in the storm.  Plans were for him to move into “Memorial Display Room” when the weather got too rough.  There he’d have a line of sight view of the tomb protecting it.  But he’d be there. The tomb would remain guarded.

Jack smiled. Like a postal worker, either rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail, nor anything else shall keep this sentinel from his task.

The unknowns before him called for it — No demanded it. Standing out in a hurricane was nothing compared to their sacrifice. They had given a blank check to the United States of America and she had cashed it. As the rain whipped his face, Jack was just glad he wasn’t a TV reporter standing out in the storm surge.

And as the storm struck Washington D.C.,  the tomb was once again guarded.