To join the Army's Old Guard, Iraq war veteran learns to sweat the small stuff

[bruno]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052903726.html?hpid=topnews

An interesting look at "The Old Guard". It's the military's version of "kabuki" - I certainly couldn't do this -if for no other reason than a boxers physique is not what they looked for in members- long and lean is the model. When I was a cadet at VMI my company Tac officer had done a tour in the Old Guard- which was kind of a nightmare during inspections for cadets who fully embraced the "close enough is good enough" mantra- not so in the Old Guard. Thankfully we learned to adapt and he learned to relax a little

But when these guys do a funeral at Arlington for a soldier who has passed, it is precision personified and is beyond moving. The small stuff does matter.

Headquartered at Fort Myer in Arlington County, the Old Guard, the Army's oldest active-duty infantry unit, escorts the president and serves at inaugurations and state dinners. Each Memorial Day weekend, it helps plant thousands of flags at Arlington, and once again the unit becomes the public face of the military -- a stoic symbol of a nation's resolve, perfect to within a sixteenth of an inch.....
..."We are not perfect," the instructor barks. "But we give the appearance of being perfect."