Soldier places flag in ‘jaw-dropping’ display amid torrential downpour
Even Mother Nature at her wildest couldn’t stop this soldier from paying his respects to the fallen.
Moving video and photos show a proud member of the 3rd US Infantry Regiment ignoring a raging storm to place a flag at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
As onlookers took cover from torrential rain, the dignified soldier marched solemnly with flags in hand against howling winds that seemed ready to blow him off his path.
He pushed through and finally knelt to plant the flags in front of the tomb in what his regiment proudly called “one of the most extraordinary displays of discipline and dedication to duty ever to be witnessed at Arlington National Cemetery.”
“For the select few who saw this moment, it was jaw-dropping,” the regiment, also known as The Old Guard, said in a Facebook post honoring the annual tribute on Thursday. “Humans have their limits, but The Old Guard has yet to meet theirs.”
The officer was not named, although a comment to the post identified him as Tyler McKee, according to WTHR-TV.
Thousands of homes in the D.C. area lost power in the storm which destroyed several homes and knocked down a significant number of trees, WUSA-TV reported.
Soldiers from the Old Guard place American flags in front of more than 228,000 headstones as part of the annual Flags In ceremony, which has been held since 1948 just before Memorial Day.
