From the S&S archives: Perfection is the word for the Berlin honor guard

(Click here for more photos of the Berlin Honor Guard.)

ONE OF THE most tightly disciplined units in a peacetime military force is its honor guard.

It brooks no "good, better, best" among its 15 to 25 men; all must be perfect all the time. Its standard is excellence.

When S Sgt Dallas A. Pinckney, 31, of Tallahassee, Fla., arrived in Berlin to join the 2nd Battle Gp in 1959, his assignment was to create such a unit.

Today he would be the last to admit he has achieved perfection, but the first to claim the 2nd Battle Gp Honor Guard is the Army's finest.

With two other noncoms, Sgt Wilber Davis, 21, of Springfield, Mo., and Sgt Lawrence Dole, 21, of Johnston, N.Y., Pinckney oversees the effort of 21 experts on perfection.

Their average age is 24; average weight, 162; average height, 5 ft. 11½ ins.; average Army service, three years; average daily time spent at being an honor guardsman, 24 hours.

Their job is to carry the national colors, escort VIPs, demonstrate weapons and uniforms and put on close-order drill exhibitions unrivalled in precision.

For these efforts, they get no time off from their regular duties as riflemen in the 2nd Battle Gp's Co D. Pinckney's own combat assignment is close-in security for battle group headquarters.

Pinckney was chosen to create the honor guard because he wanted to do so. Somewhere in the 11 years since he joined the Army he developed a natural interest in the possibilities that close-order drill offers for military display.

The tradition stems from an order issued by General of the Armies John J. Pershing years ago when he urged the creation of Army drill teams to exhibit the intricacies of close-order drill and the manual of arms. Today the Pershing Rifles is an R.O.T.C. organization dedicated to fostering the Pershing tradition.

When Pinckney returned from Korea in 1953, he was assigned to the 4th Inf Div at Ft. Lewis, Wash., and there he formed a group of 12 volunteers to "experiment," as he puts it, with close-order drill.

They worked out their own drills and, within a week, Brig Gen John H. McGee, the division commander, asked Pinckney to form an honor guard.

"We started with recruits who'd only been in the Army four weeks," recalls Pinckney. "After three weeks of drill, we were invited to appear on television in Seattle.

"In 1957 the Ed Sullivan show taped our performance and telecast it nationwide, and in 1958 three of us went to New York and did it live on the Ed Sullivan Show."

Much of the 2nd Battle Gp Honor Guard's "spare time," if it has any at all, is devoted to maintaining its own excellence. The members, all of them volunteers, wash, starch and press one complete uniform dally.

The quartermaster uniforms are tailored to fit snugly at the individual's expense. To prevent bulges nothing is worn in the uniform pockets. Once dressed, the men never sit down until the review or exhibition is over, in order to preserve creases.

Their white gloves are secured to their wrists with adhesive tape in order to keep them snug while they go through their complex manuals of arms. A loose glove could cause a dropped rifle.

And they're on call 24 hours a day, even though they may require as much as 20 minutes to don uniforms and prepare for one of Pinckney's snap inspections.

"We pick men for the Honor Guard solely from volunteers," says Pinckney. "We usually have a waiting list of. those who want to join. Volunteers sign up at group headquarters. When we need to fill a vacancy, the company commander and I interview the applicants and then make a selection."

"There isn't much turnover in the guard," he added. "Once in a while we may have a man who can't take it, so we let him out with no hard feelings. But as a rule, all of us are glad to be in the Honor Guard — and proud, too."