Leadership and Loss
2 years ago

There is one, single thing that moved me the most during the France Tour to honor the selection of the World War I Unknown Soldier.
I wandered around all those First World War grave markers and saw nothing but US Army Privates; rarely a Corporal, Sergeant or a Lieutenant...but mostly Privates. Those poor souls had no training, no leadership and no time to acquire even a rudimentary knowledge of combat. They got to France a few weeks or months before being thrown into a trench to wait for massive frontal assaults with poorly executed senior and local intelligence, engineer and artillery support.

Certainly, there were potential small-unit combat leaders among those Privates. What carnage on a grand scale. It screamed to me that the Army lacked enough experienced NCO and officer leadership to recognize good, combat leaders among that vast array of Privates and promote them to Corporal or Sergeant. It was leadership….again.

Then I walked through the cemetery at Omaha. I couldn’t help but notice all the PFC’s, Corporals, Sergeants, Lieutenants. But by 1944 there had been some time to develop those instincts among the NCO/officer corps to recognize those junior leaders and, in my mind, the results speak for themselves.

COL (Retired) William King
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Did you know?
How many Sentinels have been female?
There have been over 680 tomb guards awarded the badge since 1958 when we started counting. There are hundreds more from the year 1926 when the Army started guarding the Tomb. The 3rd US Infantry (The Old Guard) is the unit that has been given the duty of guarding the Tomb. It was given this sacred duty in 1948. The Old Guard was -- and still is -- considered a combat unit. As an Infantry unit, females were not permitted in the ranks for many years. It wasn't until 1994 that females were permitted to volunteer to become a Sentinel when the 289th Military Police Company was attached to the Old Guard. The MP branch is a combat support unit and includes females.
In 1996, SGT Heather Johnsen became the first female to earn the Tomb Guard Identification Badge. She volunteered for duty in June 1995 and earned her badge in 1996. However, SGT Johnson was not the only female Sentinel. Since then, there have been a total of five female Sentinels awarded the Tomb Guard Identification Badge:
SGT Danyell Wilson earned
her badge in 1997
SSG Tonya Bell received hers in 1998
SGT Ruth
Hanks earned her badge in June 2015
SFC Chelsea Porterfield earned her badge in 2021
Several other units have since been attached to the Old Guard -- food
service, transportation, medics, etc. -- so now females have an ever
greater opportunity to become a Sentinel. Females must meet the same
requirements as the male soldiers to be eligible to volunteer at the
Tomb. the only difference is that females have a minimum height of 5'8"
-- which is the same standard to be a member of the Old Guard.