Also called: Presidential Honor Guard, Old Guard Caisson Platoon, Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, Base Honor Guard
Performs military funerals, presidential ceremonies, and parades, including with horse-drawn caissons and colonial-style fife and drum.
Honor guard members practice precision rifle drills, fold flags for funerals, and march in state ceremonies. Some care for and ride the horses that carry caskets at Arlington; others play fifes and drums in 18th-century uniforms. It's a deeply meaningful assignment.
Regular military compensation (RMC = base pay + housing and food allowances + their tax advantage) for typical E-1 to E-6 ranks, 2026 estimate. Cash in hand is lower early on because junior troops often live in free barracks and eat in dining halls. Enlistment bonuses can add thousands.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0.5 years after high school. Join the service, volunteer or be selected for honor guard duty, then train for weeks to months. Free-college benefits: Tuition Assistance (up to $4,500/yr) while serving, the Post-9/11 GI Bill (36 months of tuition + housing stipend) afterward, and SkillBridge internships before separating.
Ways in: Military, On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: History, Equine Science.
Growing about average. Military specialties are not in BLS projections. The services recruit for this job every year and openings track force size and retention rather than market growth.
Low risk for 10 years. Precision drill, flag folding and funeral honors stay human.
Classes: PE / fitness, US history, Band (bugle/drum).
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.