‘Old Guard’ Soldiers Place 260,000 Flags at Arlington for Memorial Day

Before most of Washington was awake May 21, nearly 1,500 soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to begin Flags In, the annual tradition of placing a small American flag at the base of every headstone in the cemetery ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

Of the more than 260,000 graves at Arlington, every one gets a flag. The soldiers work in organized groups moving section by section across the cemetery’s 639 acres, pulling flags from their backpacks, placing each one exactly one boot length in front of and centered on the headstone. The flags must be straight, consistent and precisely positioned at every grave. Some soldiers work in groups and move quickly. Others work alone and move more slowly, pausing at headstones for a moment before moving on.

They finish in under four hours.

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What The Old Guard Is

The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment is the oldest active-duty infantry unit in the Army, with a lineage dating to 1784. Known as The Old Guard, it serves as the Army’s official ceremonial unit and is responsible for defending Washington, D.C., as well as conducting ceremonies at the Pentagon, the White House and Arlington National Cemetery.

Flags In has been one of The Old Guard’s responsibilities since 1948, when the regiment was designated as the Army’s official ceremonial unit. In 77 years, it has not missed a Memorial Day. The tradition has expanded over time to include participation from other military branches, though The Old Guard leads and coordinates the effort.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier receives its own flag, placed by the Tomb Sentinels. The graves of President John F. Kennedy, President William Howard Taft, and other notable figures buried at Arlington each receive individual flags as well.

What It Looks Like From the Inside

For the soldiers carrying out the mission, Flags In occupies a different category from most of what The Old Guard does. The regiment trains extensively for ceremonial precision: funerals, parades, wreath layings, the exact choreography of military ceremony. Flags In requires the same precision in a different register. It is not a performance for a crowd. It is a mission completed mostly before the public arrives.

Staff Sgt. Robin Barnhill, speaking at a previous year’s ceremony, described the experience as humbling. “With Memorial Day approaching, I know a lot of people just enjoy the long weekend, extra day off, or whatever,” Barnhill said. “I think it’s important just to remember in the back of your head why we have this, you know. It wasn’t given. It was earned, and everyone out here that’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery — it’s because of them.”

For some soldiers, the mission is personal. An Old Guard officer whose great-uncle is buried at Arlington described the experience of knowing a flag would be placed at his family member’s headstone. He said the ceremony is a way of paying it forward, knowing that someday someone might be placing a flag at his own.

What Happens After

The flags remain in place through Memorial Day, Monday, May 25. Arlington stays open through the holiday weekend and draws significant visitor numbers once the flag placement is complete, with families and individuals walking the rows of marked graves through the long weekend.

After Memorial Day, all flags are removed before the cemetery reopens to the public for regular visiting hours. The mission runs in both directions: placing the flags and recovering them with the same care and discipline.

For the public, the cemetery is open to visitors during Flags In. The atmosphere is quiet, and the soldiers work with the kind of focused, unhurried precision that comes from years of ceremonial training. If you arrive before the holiday crowds build, the sight of 260,000 flags in the rows of Arlington is something that does not easily leave you.

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