#ReadThis #SacredDuty @TomCottonAR SACRED DUTY A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery by TOM COTTON U.S. Senator from Arkansas Our Coverage Sponsored by Cosmopolitan Dental, Official Dentist of Whom You Know @GaroNazarianDDS #cosmopolitandental #loveyoursmile
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When we consider reviewing a book, we like to consider whether it's been done before or if the author is adding value to the world both in style and in content (bien sur, Charles Kipps still sets the standard). Tom Cotton has nailed it with his masterpiece of SACRED DUTY, which rates high on both: filling a void in history books and doing it with style!
Our favorite quote from the book is found on page 284:
"'Excellence doesn't just happen,' Col. Tuite said. 'It's the product of habits and systems.'"
Note this is NOT a political book and there are no politics in it.
It is a history book. If you oppose Tom Cotton politically, it is your loss if you base your book reading decision on politics. This is a book for all Americans and people that love America and covers the history of The Old Guard first, which we preferred, and its operation today, second.
In the world according to Peachy Deegan, history matters and AMERICAN HISTORY is the best as evidenced by Peachy's B.A. in it from Boston College. (Tom, did you go to the Beanpot?! Maybe we saw you there? ) Sacred Duty comprehensively tells the story of The Old Guard and their human embodiment of the words patriotism, duty, honor and respect. (p. 6). Cotton elucidates the world on military history, which is often omitted in academia today in favor of interpretive cultural history. Both need to be covered because peace is only achieved through strength.
Tom Cotton shines the spotlight on an otherwise mysterious realm of the military that many have been curious about for ages. Since its inception in June 1784, The Old Guard has celebrated ritual, respect and reverence at our nation's highest level.
There is much to admire about The Old Guard and we suggest you specifically enjoy these parts of the book:
*their fabulous motto: Noli Me Tangere
*their commitment to precision down to 1/64th of an inch
*You'll learn why there are bayonets fixed to their rifles and why tattoos without ink are the best and at twilight
*You'll now know all about the Caparisoned Horse (think JFK, another Harvard grad)
What there is to love about Tom Cotton's writing style:
*he uses whom correctly on page 54: of course, he did graduate from Harvard!
*he does not mention politics and is committed to his thesis of telling the story of The Old Guard from its history to its operation today
*he is clear in his explanations and you will know why the 3rd Infantry includes the 1st
*his research skills are flawless and his attention to detail is stellar
You'll find many moments touching including the discovery of remains 170 years old that were brought home (p. 62-63) and you'll understand the historical background of Scorsese's Gangs of New York. You'll find all supporting photography highly laudable and key to understanding the story.
Can you be completely still for 75 minutes?
We suggest you become mostly still with the movement of turning pages and get this fantastic work now.
Sacred Duty is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
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From United States Senator Tom Cotton, SACRED DUTY: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery (On Sale: May 14, 2019) is not only an inspiring portrait of Arlington National Cemetery's Old Guard, but also a personal chronicle of Senator Cotton’s time as a platoon leader in the unit. In writing and researching the book, Senator Cotton returned to Arlington and shadowed the regiment’s soldiers, from daily funerals to the state funeral of President George H. W. Bush. Indeed, he relived the honor—and the challenges—of duty at the nation’s “most sacred shrine,” whose hallowed grounds contain some of the most famous names in military and political history, including presidents, Supreme Court justices, five-star generals, and Medal of Honor recipients, as well as liberated slaves, and, at the fabled Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the bodies of soldiers known only to God.
For sixteen months over 2007-2008, between combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tom Cotton served as a platoon leader for the Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment at Arlington. Known as “The Old Guard,” these soldiers have embodied the ideals of honor and sacrifice across our nation’s history. America’s oldest active-duty regiment, dating back to 1784, The Old Guard conducts daily military-honor funerals on the 624 rolling acres of Arlington. Its soldiers hold themselves to the standard of perfection in sweltering heat, frigid cold, and driving rain. Every funeral is a no-fail, zero-defect mission, whether honoring a legendary general or a humble private.
Selection into the ranks of The Old Guard is extremely rigorous, and its soldiers serve to remind Americans that tradition, honor, and devotion still matter. Senator Cotton’s tour coincided with the height of the 2007 Surge in Iraq; consequently, he carried the flag-draped remains of his fallen comrades off airplanes at Dover Air Force Base and laid to rest the fallen from the war on terror—soldiers his own age—in Section 60, “the saddest acre in America.” He also performed hundreds of funerals for veterans of the Greatest Generation, as well as the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Part history of The Old Guard, part memoir of Cotton’s time at Arlington, part intimate profile of today’s soldiers, SACRED DUTY is an unforgettable testament to the timeless power of service and sacrifice to our nation. It is a reflection on those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Cotton is a United States Senator from Arkansas. He served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Between combat tours, he served with the United States Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment (“The Old Guard”) at Arlington National Cemetery. His military decorations include the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Ranger Tab. He served one term in the House of Representatives before election to the Senate. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Tom is married to Anna and they have two sons, Gabriel and Daniel.
ABOUT THE BOOK
SACRED DUTY
A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery
William Morrow Hardcover
On Sale Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 9780062863157
E-book ISBN: 9780062863171
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Senator Tom Cotton’s Address at The Old Guard,
4th Battalion Ball — February 8, 2019
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Good evening. Thank you for the kind introduction and for that warm welcome. It’s an honor to be with you tonight, and always a pleasure to be back in the company of soldiers. I want to acknowledge Colonel Jim Tuite, Sergeant Major Ed Brooks, Lieutenant Colonel Todd Burroughs, and Sergeant Major Lee Ward. Thank you for your service to our country and your leadership of these fine troops. And most of all, I want to acknowledge and thank the soldiers of the Warrior Battalion of America’s Regiment, the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard.
And not just on my behalf. I also pass on the thanks of a grateful nation. Our fellow Americans esteem your service more than you could ever know. When Arkansans visit me in the Senate, I ask them what the highlight of their trip was. They consistently say, “Arlington and The Old Guard.” Whether watching the Sentinels conduct the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, strolling the avenues of the cemetery, or attending a ceremony on the parade fields of Fort Myer, they marvel at your skill, discipline, and appearance.
I suspect that at times you don’t appreciate the full impact of what you do at Arlington and around the nation’s capital every day. Some of you marched last year at the arrival ceremony at the Pentagon for the Ministers of Defense of Sweden and Finland. Though close partners, those nations aren’t NATO allies and therefore have more exposure to Russian mischief and aggression. That ceremony is a good example of what Lt. Col. Burroughs calls The Old Guard’s “strategic messaging.” Footage of the ceremony played across major media outlets in both Sweden and Finland. And I suspect that Moscow took note as well.
There’s a reason the Army hand-selects the most promising new recruits from basic training for assignment to The Old Guard. There’s a reason why officers and NCOs must apply to come here. And there’s a reason we all went through such rigorous training and testing before we stepped on the marks. It’s because when you get on the marks, you represent every soldier in the Army. The Old Guard is the last image of the Army for the family at a funeral, and it’s the lasting image to the world at a ceremony. That’s truly a no-fail, zero-defect mission, as we hear so often in the regiment, and that’s why The Old Guard accepts only the best of our nation’s best.
And it’s always been so. After the Battle of Yorktown ended the Revolutionary War in 1781, the Continental Congress essentially disbanded the Army, going from sixty infantry battalions down to just a couple platoons. But by 1784, the Congress realized the error of its ways and created the First American Regiment, as we were then known. The professional soldiers of our regiment and others were called the regulars, as a contrast to volunteer militiamen. The regulars remained the backbone of the Army for more than one hundred fifty years.
Our regiment set the standard for professionalism, discipline, and excellence from the beginning, just as you do today. That legacy lives around you every day. The Continental Color Guard presented the colors tonight
in the 1784 Continental Infantry uniform approved by George Washington. The Fife and Drum Corps wears
the 1779 Continental Musician uniform to commemorate their role as a battlefield signal corps. Those black-and-tan buff straps on your left shoulders recall the regiment’s decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, the first campaign streamer on our regimental colors. You march with bayonets fixed to your rifles
because of our forerunners’ bravery at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, where they followed a path blazed around Mexican lines by a Captain of Engineers named Robert E. Lee. Because of their bravery in the Mexican War—and perhaps because he had served with them thirty years earlier in the War of 1812—General Winfield Scott put the regiment at the head of the victory parade into Mexico City, where he directed his staff to salute “The Old Guard of the Army.”
A few years later, on the eve of a terrible Civil War, that engineer took command of rebel forces, and the U.S. Army seized his family’s farm across the river—ground it has held ever since. The Old Guard camped at Arlington just before the First Battle of Bull Run, where they saved the Union army from destruction. A few days later, the Union commander told President Lincoln at a review of troops, “there are the men who saved your army at Bull Run.”
Your ancestors fought in every major battle in the East for the next two years. The Seven Days Battles. Bull Run again. Antietam. Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville. And finally, Gettysburg, where they held the Union line at the Bloody Wheatfield. Watching from Little Round Top, a volunteer militiaman later said, “for two years, the regulars taught us how to fight like soldiers. At the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, they taught us how to die like soldiers.”
That’s quite a legacy to uphold, and one reason why the Army designated The Old Guard in 1948 as its official ceremonial unit and escort to the president. We’ve welcomed presidents to Washington, and we’ve carried them to their eternal homes. On 9/11 at the Pentagon, we were the first soldiers deployed to a battlefield in the war on terror, and ever since we’ve brought home our fallen heroes from that war at Dover Air Force Base, while watching mournfully as the rows of headstones grow in Section 60.
And all along, The Old Guard answered the nation’s call and did its duty. I know that many of you never imagined you’d perform this mission when you signed that enlistment contract. I didn’t either. But you’re exactly where the Army needs you. For two hundred and thirty-five years—since before our Constitution was ratified—the soldiers, NCOs, and officers of The Old Guard have kept America safe, free, and proud. Just as you do today.
Thank you, God bless you, God bless the 3rd United States Infantry, and God bless America.
