Final roll call for Waterloo Arlington tomb guard
Dennis Sommer guarded Tomb of The Unknown Soldier with U.S. Army's "Old Guard"
WATERLOO — I spent most of my first years with Dennis Sommer jockeying with him for access to the copy machine at work.
I spent most of the last decade or more of his life making up for that, admiring him as a good man and a patriot, valuing his friendship and helping him tell his story.
Dennis passed away Jan. 19 at age 89 (his obituary is linked here). We were colleagues at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, in different departments. He worked many years as an advertising account executive; I was a newsroom guy. And I must confess I was initially less than patient with him early on in my time as a city editor.
Under deadline pressure, I could get pretty antsy waiting for him to finish copying proofs of display advertisements for clients so I could print story lists for my superiors to review for our planning meetings for that day’s paper. He noticed me tailgating him at the copier and called me “governor” a couple of times to loosen me up and gently get me to back off.
That was before we really got to know each other. I cooled my jets considerably and felt a bit contrite.
I found we shared an interest in history. And I got pretty respectful when I found out Dennis also had been a member of the oldest and one of the most elite units in the United States Army.
Right after graduating from Waterloo West High School in 1955, Dennis enlisted. He became a member of its 3rd Infantry Regiment, the oldest active-duty regiment in the Army, also known as “The Old Guard.” It traces its lineage back to Gen. George Washington and the American Revolution.
The regiment conducts military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. And Dennis also served as a tomb guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. At that time it was the final resting place of a soldier from World War I. Fallen soldiers from World War II and Korea were added in 1958. Dennis participated in that interment procession.
It is, quite simply, one of the most prestigious duties a soldier can have in the Army. The fact that Dennis was selected for that unit speaks to his excellence not only as a soldier, but as an individual.
Among other duties, Dennis was part of the honor guard for President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second inauguration in January 1957 and for a visit that October by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
Dennis also was a part of a joint armed forces precision drill team that performed live to a national television audience on the popular CBS-TV game show “I’ve Got a Secret,” hosted by Garry Moore, on a special Armed Forces Week program that aired from network studios in New York on May 14, 1958. The team was made up of four members each from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force with a team captain.
I did a story with Dennis on his service that appeared in the Courier, appropriately, around Memorial Day weekend in 2015. He made it clear getting into The Old Guard was no game.
“I arrived at Fort Myer, Va., in June 1956, after basic training,” Dennis told me. “Out of 28 guys that came to Fort Meyer, eight of us were chosen for the honor guard company. And I was one of them.”
He had earned a shot at the Old Guard after being selected as the outstanding trainee of his basic training cycle at Fort Hood, Texas.
Sommer could have gone to Korea, to Europe or to the Old Guard. He chose the Old Guard because his parents were elderly and he wanted to remain stateside.
“I’d have hated to have been overseas and have something happen to my folks,” he said. “In fact my dad was a World War I veteran. He got to come out and see the Unknown Soldier” when Dennis served in the honor guard. He didn’t regret his decision; his father passed away shortly after he left the service.
A company commander had told Dennis how hard it would be trying to qualify for The Old Guard.
“He said ‘It’s spit and polish. You’re going to have to learn a lot of stuff.’ I said ‘Well, let’s go for it.’
“They gave us two weeks,” Dennis said. “You had to learn how to spit shine -- which I had no idea how to do that.” They had to be in top physical condition. Uniforms were tailored.
“And of course, the manual of arms they used was nothing like we were taught in basic training,” Dennis said. “We had to learn two manuals of arms. I was assigned to the First Platoon, which was the U.S. Army Drill Team. I had to learn the drill team manual and the ceremonial manual.
“The only people at Fort Myer that could wear the honor guard patch was A Company,” Dennis said, which was founded by George Washington. “And you earned that patch. If you couldn’t make it, you were sent to a line company.”
He not only made it, he made the drill team, “the class of the company,” from which guards for the Tomb of the Unknown Solder were selected. He served as a tomb guard from December 1956 to June 1957.
The tomb is guarded around the clock, day and night, and duties include the precision “Changing of the Guard.” ceremony, which visitors are welcome to watch, but must maintain complete silence as it is performed. A video of that ceremony may be seen at the link here.
Tomb guards stand the watch rain or shine, day and night. Sommer recalled he and his fellow guards having icicles on their caps in winter. On very bright days sunglasses were permitted due to the sun’s glare off the memorial’s white marble, and off the snow in winter.
Dennis encountered two presidents at President Eisenhower’s inaugural. He was able to briefly speak with Eisenhower, who told the honor guard captain to let his soldiers stay for the inaugural ball and enjoy themselves. A departing delegation from Massachusetts passed their drink tickets to honor guard members and pointed out to Dennis and his comrades the drinks were courtesy of an old Navy man — then-Sen. John F. Kennedy.
Dennis was honorably discharged from the Army in 1959. In 2008, nearly 50 years after leaving active duty, he received one of the rarest decorations in the U.S. military — the Tomb Guard Badge. Fewer than 750 soldiers have received the award. Only the Military Horseman Identification Badge and the Astronaut Badge are rarer.
Dennis made a trip to Washington, D.C. in 2015, almost 60 years after his service there on a local Honor Flight of veterans to see military memorials. One of the stops was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As a result of his service as a tomb guard, he was afforded the rare privilege of visiting the guard house under the memorial where he once served.
Dennis continued educating the public and serving veterans locally, despite declining health and failing eyesight. He became post historian of Becker-Chapman American Legion Post 138 in Waterloo and established a reading room there in 2019.
In 2021, Dennis and Waterloo-born writer and Iowa historian Mike Chapman co-authored a booklet on the Waterloo Legion post’s namesakes, Fred Becker and Carl Chapman, both killed in World War I, as a fundraiser for the post.
Dennis also was a featured speaker on the 100th anniversary program on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on a Veterans Day 2021 assembly at Waterloo Columbus Catholic High School.
He and his wife Bonnie, active in the Legion Auxiliary, also donated gift cards to needy veterans during the holiday season as part of an annual drive by the Black Hawk County Veteran Affairs Commission.
In November 2024, Dennis received a "Helping Veterans Award" from the University of Northern Iowa Veterans Association at its "Veterans Night Out" event at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum.
In his service to his fellow veterans and community and in his reverence to the fallen, Dennis Sommer exemplified The Sentinel’s Creed, the standard of Arlington tomb guards:
My dedication to this sacred duty
is total and whole-hearted.
In the responsibility bestowed on me
never will I falter.
And with dignity and perseverance
my standard will remain perfection.
Through the years of diligence and praise
and the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence
to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect,
his bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day,
alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this soldier will in honored glory rest
under my eternal vigilance.
Dennis Sommer walked his tour in life to the best of his ability. He commands my enduring respect. May my friend likewise rest in honored glory.
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed here. A sampling of their columns can be found in the roundup linked here. Clink on these links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription. Thank you.
Forwarded to six grandsons.
Thank you for telling Dennis’s story, Pat. Rest In Peace Most Honorable Man.