Hallowed Changing of the Guard Gets an All-Female Cast at Arlington

It was the last changing of the defender for Sgt. First Class Chelsea Porterfield.

She was completing 20 months of work arsenic the archetypal pistillate Sergeant of the Guard, moving the day-to-day operations of the portion that for 84 years has stood ticker implicit the Tomb of the Unknowns astatine Arlington National Cemetery.

Early connected Sept. 29, earlier the cemetery opened to the public, Sergeant Porterfield walked successful slow, perfectly synchronized step with 2 white-gloved women clutching M14 rifles fitted with bayonets.

The changing of the guard, a hallowed subject tradition, has transfixed visitors to the Washington, D.C., country for decades. But this was the archetypal clip it had been carried retired by 3 women, whose schedules happened to align that morning, according to a subject spokesman.

The representation of 3 women upholding a ineffable ritual underscored however disposable women person go successful the military, and moved chap soldiers, veterans and subject historians.

“I ne'er thought I would spot it hap successful my lifetime,” said First Lt. Ruth Robinson, a person of Sergeant Porterfield, who attended the ceremony.

Lieutenant Robinson, 33, was a Tomb Guard from 2015 and 2017, and was the lone pistillate successful the portion astatine the time.

“To spot not lone 1 female, but to spot 3 conscionable feels truly astounding,” she said.

The tomb was created successful 1921 arsenic the last resting spot for the unidentified remains of a worker who was killed successful World War I. At the time, it was imagined “as a tract that would make the consciousness of the full state arsenic 1 radical mourning and honoring sacrifice,” said Micki McElya, a prof of past astatine the University of Connecticut and the writer of “The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor successful Arlington National Cemetery.”

In 1937, the subject installed a 24-hour station astatine the tomb. Since then, soldiers person guarded the tomb successful shifts that past 30 minutes to an hour, depending connected the clip of year.

Women were not allowed to unpaid for the Tomb Guard Platoon until 1994, according to the Society of the Honor Guard, an enactment that works to sphere the past of the site. From 1996 to 1998, 3 women earned the Tomb Guard Identification Badge.

None earned the badge again until 2015, erstwhile Lieutenant Robinson began her station arsenic portion of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the Army’s oldest active-duty infantry unit, which is known arsenic the Old Guard and includes the Tomb Guard.

The Tomb Guard’s duties are highly respected, but grueling.

The soldiers indispensable beryllium successful “superb carnal condition” and person an unblemished subject record, according to Arlington National Cemetery. Before they tin qualify, soldiers indispensable memorize a 17-page papers detailing the cemetery’s past and recite it verbatim to their grooming officer, Lieutenant Robinson said.

During the changing of the guard, a sergeant oregon corporal walks to the plaza with different defender to relieve the worker in an elaborate ceremony that takes spot successful blizzards, rainstorms and vigor waves.

Guards tin beryllium relieved lone if remaining astatine the tomb would enactment their lives astatine risk, said Major Shahin Uddin, a spokesperson for the infantry.

During the ceremonial past week, Sergeant Porterfield laid roses astatine the tomb, wherever the remains of servicemen from World War II and the Korean War are buried successful crypts adjacent to the achromatic marble sarcophagus that contains the remains of the unidentified World War I soldier. The tomb besides includes an bare crypt that erstwhile held the remains of an Air Force aviator who was killed successful the Vietnam War but was identified successful 1998 done DNA.

In the cemetery itself, determination are 4,723 chartless soldiers who died successful wars dating to the Civil War, Lieutenant Robinson said.

Sergeant Porterfield declined to comment. Major Uddin said the Army could not merchandise the names of the soldiers who walked with her due to the fact that of the solemnity of their duty.

“They truly bash their champion to deflect attraction and stay chartless due to the fact that what they’re doing is sacred,” helium said.

Lieutenant Robinson said that was a wide sentiment among the soldiers who served astatine the tomb.

“It’s been 4 years present since my past walk, and I’m present conscionable getting much comfy talking astir it,” she said. “You ne'er privation it to beryllium astir you. You privation it to beryllium astir the unknowns.”

The images of the 3 pistillate soldiers were a “visual marker” of the often unrecognized sacrifices that women and different marginalized radical successful the United States person made for the military, Professor McElya said.

“Women person served either officially oregon unofficially successful each azygous warfare this state has ever waged, but they person ne'er been drafted,” she said. “So if we privation to speech astir sacrifice and honor, women person done that due to the fact that they wanted to.”

The changing of the defender was besides an important infinitesimal successful subject history, 1 that showed that women are serving successful “the astir revered positions,” said Kara Dixon Vuic, a prof of war, struggle and nine successful 20th-century America astatine Texas Christian University successful Fort Worth.

“These are the rituals that the federation holds dear,” she said. “Some mightiness telephone it militaristic and immoderate mightiness accidental it represents the champion of us. But to person women astatine the bosom of it, immoderate your position is, is important due to the fact that it shows that women are astatine the bosom of these debates now.”

Sergeant Porterfield, who plans to discontinue from the Army adjacent twelvemonth aft 20 years of service, volition not beryllium succeeded by different woman. Two women — the soldiers who walked with Sergeant Porterfield — stay successful the Tomb Guard Platoon, Major Uddin said.

So arsenic momentous arsenic her last changing of the defender was, it was besides unique, Professor McElya said.

“It’s not going to hap again anytime soon,” she said.