Chattanoogan Tony Mines (not pictured) laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery earlier this month.Tony Mines, a semi-retired Chattanooga art store owner, got an early Christmas gift this year that left him speechless.
Mines, a Vietnam War veteran who is battling a serious blood disorder, was allowed to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., early this month.
In the process, Mines interacted with The Old Guard Sentinels, the elite Army soldiers who have guarded the tomb every minute of every day for almost 70 years.
The sentinels, who are said to spend up to two hours just shining their shoes to a mirror finish for a guard shift, have protected the site continuously since 1948, often through horrific weather and even the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Sometimes they pause in their precise, 21-step passes to admonish visitors who don't show the proper decorum and respect for the country's fallen heroes. Watching the sentinels call-out too-loud tourists while wielding bayoneted M-14 rifles is a rare, but deeply satisfying, display of moral authority.
"Being an Army guy, it makes me feel good that this is one of the Army's duties," says Mines, who served in the Army's 9th Infantry in the jungle along the Mekong River from 1968 to 1971.
Recently, he has begun to reconnect with some of his Army buddies, he says, including a man in Pittsburgh with whom he shared a bunker on one of his most horrific days of fighting.
"Not a day went by that there weren't rockets and mortars," he recalls. " ... It was a peculiar war, but I do believe the cause was noble."
Mark KennedyView other columns by Mark Kennedy
Mines says words can't express the emotions he felt laying a wreath of carnations and roses at the foot of the memorial to America's unidentified war dead stretching back to World War I. An estimated 5,000 sets of unidentified war remains are interred at Arlington, and the marble Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents them all.
Laying a wreath there is done by arrangement with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), based at Fort Myer, Va. Tony's wife, Linda, a retired Girls Preparatory School teacher and avid historian, arranged the wreath ceremony as an early Christmas present for her husband.
"He doesn't need another book or painting," she said. "I thought creating a memory, an experience, would be better."
Arranging such a ceremony takes a fair amount of hoop jumping. Linda had to gather her husband's military discharge papers, among other documents, to secure the opportunity. She arranged to have the wreath made and delivered by a Washington, D.C., florist, and the couple went up a day early so that Tony could rest some before the big event.
When they arrived, Mines received instructions on how to wait at the top of a set of steps in front of the tomb for a sentinel bearing the wreath to approach. Then, he was told to extend his hands to grasp the ring of flowers as the sentinel backed slowly toward the tomb.
Modern DNA-matching technology makes it less likely that the remains of fallen service people will be unidentified in the future.
But it's comforting to know that the vigil for the unknowns at Arlington will continue, unabated, for as long as the flag flies above the land of the free.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.