Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge
US military badge awarded to Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Honor Guard members
The Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge is a military badge of the United States Army that honors those soldiers who have been chosen to serve as members of the Honor Guard, known as "Sentinels", at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is the third-least awarded badge in the U.S. Military, after the Military Horseman Identification Badge and the Astronaut Badge. As of March 2024, 736 soldiers have been awarded this badge.
Design
The badge itself is made of heavy sterling silver approximately two inches in diameter. The obverse design consists of an inverted wreath, a sign of mourning, and the East face of the Tomb which contains the figures of Peace, Valor and Victory. Superimposed on the bottom of the Tomb under the three figures are the words "Honor Guard".
The badge was designed in 1956 and first issued to members of the Honor Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on February 7, 1958. The badge was first issued only as a temporary wear item, meaning the Soldiers could only wear the badge during their tenure as members of the Honor Guard. Upon leaving the duty, the badge was returned and reissued to incoming Soldiers. In 1963, regulations were changed to allow the badge to be worn as a permanent part of the military uniform after the Soldier's completion of duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7818659. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2024, 1956, 1958 and 1963.
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This entry incorporates text from “Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.