The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was erected in 1921 as a
way to pay tribute to unidentified US service members who have died in
conflict. It is located at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, and while
guarded since 1926, it wasn’t continuously watched over by members of the
military until 1937.
It was created from a marble slab with the remains of a
single unidentified soldier who died during World War I, and after President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill has become home to
Unknowns from World War II and the Korean War. Those selected were interred in 1958.
The Tomb was also home to an Unknown from the Vietnam War, whose remains were later exhumed and
identified through DNA analysis as Air Force 1st Lieutenant Michael Joseph
Blassie. It was decided that, in his place, the crypt would remain vacant. Its
cover was replaced with a new inscription, which reads: “Honoring and Keeping
Faith with America’s Missing Servicemen, 1958–1975.”
“According to leaders from The Old Guard – also known as the 3rd US Infantry Regiment – this was the first time in the Tomb‘s nearly 100-year history and came at the request of Sergeant First Class Chelsea Porterfield, the 28th Sergeant of the Guard. SFC Porterfield was the first woman to lead the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb, and the change on September 29 marked her final walk. According to Commander Patrick Roddy, the all-female guard change was done in her honor.” (Clair Fitzgerald; 5 October 2021; Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Has First All-Female Guard Change). “It wasn’t anyone’s intent to ‘engineer’ this event, but we knew an event like this had significant meaning,” Commander Roddy told Task& Purpose. “So in honor of SFC Porterfield’s service, and at her request, the schedules were aligned for the first all-woman changing of
the guard as part of her.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Has First All-Female Guard Change | War History Online THE PLACE FOR WAR NEWS, MILITARY HISTORY AND MILITARY NEWS AND VIEWS | Clare Fitzgerald, Guest Author | October 5, 2021 | https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier-has-first-all-female-guard-change.html
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. —
Chelsea Porterfield sang the ABCs softly as she rocked her 2-year-old to sleep. In the quiet solitude of her son’s bedroom, her mind drifted and fixated on her husband’s .45 caliber pistol. In November 2018, the sergeant first class thought about suicide for the first time. Since she had accepted an assignment to serve as a platoon sergeant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), Chelsea struggled to strike a balance of time for duty and family.
“I was good enough at work,” she said. “I wasn’t good enough at home. I was failing somewhere. …Nothing was good enough.”
She tried to envision how her life would be different if she ended her life. Porterfield paused and cast the thoughts aside, kissing her son as he slept peacefully and pulled the covers over him. She wiped her tears and tried to go to bed.
But the ideas crept back into her mind again the following evening. At 3 a.m. on Nov. 30, no longer able to rest, she drove from her house in Alexandria, Virginia, out into the cool fall air toward Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. When she arrived at her office, dread overwhelmed her as she plunked into her desk staring at the black computer screen.
She wanted to kill herself and the idea would not go away. “It scared me. I knew I wanted to die,” Porterfield said. “But I didn’t know what I was going to be capable of doing.” The outpour of tears came uncontrollably.
The Survivor: Soldier Overcomes battle with suicide | By Joseph Lacdan | Army News Service | September 9, 2020 | https://www.army.mil/article/238891/the_survivor_soldier_overcomes_battle_with_suicide
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