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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   29550 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 26, 2024

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For those of you who have never been, the Arlington Cemetary folks and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guards in particular are extremists. Just utter head cases. It's an incredibly hard position to get, requiring utter fanaticism about the army, yet simultaneously is so theatrical and useless, pseudo-monastic.

Since 1948, the tomb guards, a special platoon within the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), work on a team rotation of 24 hours on, 24 hours off, for five days, taking the following four days off. A guard takes an average of six hours to prepare his uniform—heavy wool, regardless of the time of year—for the next day's work. In addition to preparing the uniform, guards also conduct physical training, tomb guard training, participate in field exercises, cut their hair before the next workday, and at times are involved in regimental functions as well. Tomb guards are required to memorize 35 pages of information about Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, including the locations of nearly 300 graves and who is buried in each one.

I remember thinking as a scout, when the whole routine was explained to us, that if I loved the army that much I would really want to be in Afghanistan wouldn't I*?

So this is probably a case of poor advance work that has plagued the Trump campaign all through 2024, running directly into people whose entire day consists of enforcing petty and absurd regulations as sacred traditions. They take this kind of thing extremely seriously, Trump takes nothing seriously, it's tossing a Mentos into a coke bottle.

Why Democrats are even bothering this time is totally insane to me. Lucy and the football vibes. I hate this game we all play where we pretend that someone, somewhere would be offended by this, even though I personally don't really care. But somebody is super mad! It never works out.

*My dad, when discussing this, mentioned a friend of his from college who joined the marines and was posted as a guard at the white house. He kept trying to get sent to Vietnam, and his requests kept getting denied because, supposedly, his CO told him: "You're tall, you're white, you're good looking, you show up, you don't do drugs. I can send anybody to Vietnam, but I can't replace you here."

The reports seem to indicate the dispute was between the Trump staff and a wagie at the facility, not a ceremonial guard. The person is always referred to a "staff," "employee," or "worker" in all of the fake news reports.

Any of the "Army officials" are of course not from the fanatical guard either, but political operatives in the media department.

Not personally being guardsmen does not preclude them from fanaticism about the pomerium of the tomb of the unknown soldier.

pomerium

Huh. I learned a word today.

Civilian staff at Arlington are also nuts, just a little less nuts than the guards.

Since 1948, the tomb guards, a special platoon within the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), work on a team rotation of 24 hours on, 24 hours off, for five days, taking the following four days off. A guard takes an average of six hours to prepare his uniform—heavy wool, regardless of the time of year—for the next day's work. In addition to preparing the uniform, guards also conduct physical training, tomb guard training, participate in field exercises, cut their hair before the next workday, and at times are involved in regimental functions as well. Tomb guards are required to memorize 35 pages of information about Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, including the locations of nearly 300 graves and who is buried in each one.

When I was in Arlington many years back, I couldn't understand what the big deal was about the tomb of the unknown soldier, until I went. Pictures and video don't do it justice. There is an aura there. The way everyone is dead silent. The framing. The location. You have to walk through a quarter mile of perfectly-maintained memorial graves to get there.

Same experience, I went twice for random reasons as a kid and the reverence of the place was palpable. A mix of reverence, seriousness, glory, order, stability… it’s actually one of the more interesting places to go because these moods are rare in America. If I lived nearby I would through it frequently.

Re the above —

yet simultaneously is so theatrical and useless, pseudo-monastic”

The costly, theatrical, monastic signal is extremely useful for inculcating values. If cathedrals were made of painted cardboard they wouldn’t be so interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardboard_Cathedral

I tend to agree. One can see the clash of sensibilities in a Trump campaign visit from miles away.

It does make you wonder what kind of person joins the army to stand in front of a big rock all day. Then again that's apparently not too far off from what some of the regular grunts do.

Low morale, or what soldiers called a sense of purposelessness, was palpable. “Sometimes we sat around and joked all day about killing ourselves,” says a platoonmate of Valley’s who recently left the Army. “I mean, we were all depressed. Everyone in the Army is depressed.”. Fun times all around in the post-afghanistan military.

Why Democrats are even bothering this time is totally insane to me. Lucy and the football vibes.

Seems like a pretty expected response to the attacks on Walz for saying he carried weapons in war. Goose, gander, and we all get stupider.

They've tried this over and over and it's never worked. Trump says the dead soldiers are suckers, Trump says the presidential medal of freedom he gives donors is better than the MoH because you don't have to get shot, Trump says McCain was a loser because he got captured. Liberals get on their high horse, nobody is persuaded of anything.

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