Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Back in early 1991 I was in Basic Training on Sand Hill at Ft. Benning, Georgia, having withdrawn from Indiana Wesleyan University during my senior year when the first Gulf War broke out. I ended up in a cohort of infantrymen destined for the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea as an 11-Mike (mechanized infantry) to help them transition from the old 113 troop carrier vehicles to the new Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

My Drill Sergeant, SSG Crumpler, was a hardcore light infantryman who had been an M-60 machine gunner during our incursion into Grenada. He showed a good deal of disdain for the mechanized infantry. So, when I showed interest in talking to the recruiter for The Old Guard, he set it up and personally escorted me there. The process appeared to be moving along nicely until it came down from higher that our cohort was locked into its assignment and no exceptions would be made.

It's hard to say what would have happened if I'd gone into The Old Guard instead of going to Korea and serving my two years there. I could have been one of the soldiers assigned to duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Years later, as a Psychiatry Resident at Walter Reed, I saw a soldier from The Old Guard in my clinic and learned about the great deal of stress and dysfunction at some of the units there.

What would have went down in that alternate universe? With my penchant to skirt rules and push boundaries at that time, it could have turned out disastrously. Anyway, these are some of the thoughts that come to mind when I see this photo of a young infantryman walking his line.