WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 22, 2015) -- After a long, unseasonably cold and wet day of conducting burial services, about 1,000 Old Guard Soldiers made their way across the soggy hills and flats that make up Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, to place miniature flags in front of each grave marker, May 21.
Since 1948, the Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, have conducted the tradition of Flags In a few days before Memorial Day to honor and remember those who served in the Armed Forces and those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The Flags In mission was expected to take about four hours, from 4 to 8 p.m., or as one Soldier said, for "as long as it takes" to place the 228,000 red, white and blue miniatures around the 624-acre cemetery.
Soldiers gathered behind cargo trucks and were passed handfuls of flags, filling their rucksacks with about 100 or so. Each Solider started at one end of a line of headstones and was responsible for visual perfection to the end of what looked like an infinite line. The only way to guarantee the one-foot placement of the flag and a uniform line was to literally use that measurement - one foot, whether a Soldier wears a size 7 or 8 or 14 - it is still one foot.
"If we didn't do it that way, it wouldn't look very uniform and that's not military… that's not dress-right-dress," said Capt. Andrew Mason, who is one of those big guys wearing size 14 boots.
Each Soldier would stand in front of the white or gray or black marker, read the inscription, pause, then center themselves and place one boot toe against the stone. Looking down at their heel, they pushed the little flagstaff with its golden-arrow finial into the sodden ground, stepped back and moved on to the next.
Occasionally, a Soldier stepped back, snapped to attention and threw a crisp, stiff-armed, three-second salute. This took place at simple white marble markers that read Medal of Honor under the name.
If they could, said one Soldier, everyone interred at Arlington would receive the honor of a salute - Service members, spouses, children and infants.
While this was the first Flags In mission for many of these Soldiers, it was the third for Spc. Nicholas Connell who has been part of the presidential escort for the three years he has been in the Army.
"For me, my dad is buried here in section 60… he was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, in 2007… and that's what hits home the most," Connell said, adding that he was 16 at the time. "This duty, you can't ask for anything more than to be one of the Soldiers who placed a flag for him over the years.
"This is what I wanted to do… I know when I was a kid and came here and saw those Soldiers standing behind my father at his funeral… it was special and I like to think I'm doing the same for other families by honoring their fallen," he said.
Pfc. Mark Revoir has been with the Old Guard for two years… this his first duty station… and he already believes the assignment will be his favorite post as he readies for his family's move to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
"My father was in the Army, my grandfather was a Ranger… everybody on my father's side of the family is either serving or has served in one of the branches of the military," Revoir said. "This has been my chance to give back to those who have served - it's more than fireworks and barbecues, it's about honoring those before us."
With seven years in the Army and a deployment to Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. John Rogers has only been with the Old Guard for three months, but he already recognizes names on gravestones. Stay in the military long enough, he said, and you are bound to know some who are buried here.
"Memorial Day is about remembering," Rogers said, "about remembering those who paid the ultimate price - it's just important that we all remember that because every freedom we have in our country has come at a price."
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