Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, volunteer members of the Army's 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment stand as silent sentinels guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns.  Through the brutal heat of a Washington summer or, like this weekend, a record snowfall and blizzard, the men of "The Old Guard" perform their duty with unmatched precision.

Anyone who has ever watched them pacing back and forth in front of the Tomb, their granite faces never changing expression, the click of their heels, their rifles expertly handled, cannot forget the emotional solemnity of the occassion. 

There will be no one to watch the changing of the guard.  But while the Old Guard is a ceremonial unit, its members are there not to perform.  They are there to remind us of all those who have given their lives in defense of the United States – especially "an American soldier known but to God."

This tweet from the Old Guard Twitter account shows them to be men of few words:

"I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved." #Blizzard2016 pic.twitter.com/A3aWiF6wmp

— The Old Guard (@The_Old_Guard) January 22, 2016

The men of the Old Guard probably reject all the fuss being made of them standing guard in a blizzard.  But I am wondering what they are thinking as they parade in the biting wind and snow.  Do they recall the stories about Valley Forge in the winter of 1777, when Washington's Continentals were shivering and starving during a brutal winter?  Or perhaps they remember hearing about the stand made by the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, when, low on food, medical supplies, and ammunition, they stood their ground against two crack German divisions in trenches hacked out of the frozen ground?

But that's probably a fanciful notion made up by an ignorant civilian.  They are probably thinking the same thing they always do when performing their duty: "I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved."