United States
A permanent guard is mounted at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA, near Washington, DC. This is performed by a single member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, who marches along a 63-foot walkway in exactly 21 steps, before turning to face the tomb for exactly 21 seconds, turning to face the opposite direction for another 21 seconds, and then retracing his steps to repeat the process. Each turn the guard makes is precise and is instantly followed by a loud click of the heels as he snaps them together. The guard is changed every half hour during daylight in the summer, and every hour during daylight in the winter and every two hours at night (when the cemetery is closed to the public), regardless of weather conditions.
A guard has been on duty at the site continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since July 2, 1937.
Read more about this topic: Guard Mounting
Famous quotes related to united states:
“Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity—an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.”
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“I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade, because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people.”
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