Hegseth awards medal to Tomb sentinel after Veterans Day exchange

Specialist Thomas Iglesias received the Joint Service Commendation Medal after reminding visitors to maintain silence and respect at Arlington National Cemetery, according to Pentagon officials and news reports.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal to Specialist Thomas Iglesias, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier sentinel who reminded Hegseth’s group to maintain silence and respect after a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

A Pentagon official confirmed that Hegseth welcomed members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard, to the Pentagon and presented Iglesias with the medal for his execution of duties at the Tomb on Nov. 11, CNN Newsource reported Nov. 12. Hegseth also posted photographs of the award and a statement praising soldiers and standards.

After the Nov. 11 ceremony, Hegseth, his wife and aides took photographs at the cemetery. Members of the group were heard chatting and laughing afterward, and Iglesias stopped and reminded visitors to maintain silence and respect, CNN Newsource reported. The reporting does not establish which individual laughed or why.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldier had acted correctly and respectfully, according to CNN Newsource and The Associated Press. The available reporting does not establish that anyone received formal discipline or apologized, or explain the secretary’s private motives.

The sentinel’s duty

Tomb sentinels maintain a continuous watch and sometimes intervene when visitors’ behavior disturbs others. A 2022 Army and Arlington National Cemetery report described guards correcting visitors who were talking or laughing; a guard interviewed at the time said such corrections occurred multiple times a day. That account describes conditions in 2022 and is not a current official count.

The watch follows a precise routine. According to Arlington National Cemetery, guards march 21 steps and pause for 21 seconds as part of their movements at the Tomb.

A century of remembrance

An unidentified American service member from World War I was interred at the Tomb on Nov. 11, 1921, according to the cemetery’s history. Unknown service members from World War II and the Korean War were interred there in 1958.

A military guard began at the Tomb in 1926, and the watch became continuous in 1937. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment assumed the guard mission in 1948, the cemetery says.

The award

The Associated Press reported that the Joint Service Commendation Medal is not typically issued to junior enlisted service members.

The Defense Department’s awards manual identifies it as a joint personal military decoration and describes criteria for service or achievement in a joint assignment context. The available reports do not disclose Iglesias’s award package or explain the eligibility basis in his case.

AI-assisted article written and checked using OpenAI Codex Terra; approved for publication by DutyStation News.