The green logbooks were slightly askew in the wooden bookcase—neatly kept, but none stood straight and vertical. Most were heavily worn on the edges; on some, the material was so threadbare that it revealed the thick cardboard underneath.
Handwritten dates lined the spines, a few going back to the 1950s. Maj. Gen. William Zana scanned each until he found the logbook that included March 1991. Opening it, he thumbed its pages. Long before his most recent assignment as the National Guard Bureau’s director of strategic plans and policy and international affairs at the Pentagon, Zana had served with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) in a position no less far-reaching: Sentinel, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at Arlington National Cemetery.
The logbooks detailed who stood what watch and other daily occurrences. Zana commented on names he recognized or moments he remembered, smiling to himself at the memory or sharing with his wife details that didn’t make it into the one-line note.
It was a March 28, 1991, entry Zana was looking for. The notation was sparse, logging the date, time and the simple message: Sgt. Zana, last walk.
Full Circle

Now, just over 33 years later, Zana had returned to the Sentinels’ quarters to stand one last watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as his final act in uniform. Just after completing his watch, at midnight on June 1, Zana would officially retire from the U.S. Army.
“Being afforded the honor and the privilege of coming back and having one last guard shift, to be able to say my thanks to the unknowns for their inspiration, for their sacrifice, it’s really a sense of this being full circle,” Zana said.
In early 1987, a 20-year-old Pvt. Zana had reported to the Old Guard. At the time, he didn’t know it was an assignment that would have a profound effect on him, nor that it would lead to a 37-year military career.
“My original plan was four years,” he said. “I wanted to do three, but with four, you got a signing bonus.”
He was assigned to the unit’s Company E, where he served as part of a firing party detail. In the fall of that year, he and a few friends visited the Tomb of the Unknowns, as it is also known.
“It was remarkable to be a witness to this reverence within hallowed grounds,” he said of that fall 1987 visit. “It definitely piqued my interest and curiosity, seeing the degree of training, the degree of precision that the soldiers demonstrated.”
It also stuck with him, and in the spring of 1989, then a sergeant, he reported for duty at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Discipline Required
The training was demanding and intense, he said, noting the required knowledge, precision and attention to minute details. Those qualities are also something he carried with him throughout his career.
“At the core of it is the idea of being a part of something that is bigger than yourself, and subordinating or giving yourself over to serving others,” Zana said. “The discipline required, the basic tenets of training and working constantly, striving to improve yourself, being a part of a team, all of these things transcend all that we do in the services. The time at the tomb and within the Old Guard prepared me for more challenging roles and greater responsibilities.”
Zana kept those lessons close as he attended Officer Candidate School, then rose through the officer ranks.
Now part of the Virginia Army National Guard, which he joined in 1992, he commanded an infantry company and battalion, a cyber brigade and served in numerous staff positions. He took part in combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and served as commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.
Underneath all that, there was Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“There are ways it has shaped me that I would have never anticipated,” Zana said, adding it’s a place he’s often returned to.
“It’s this touchstone of feeling gratitude, of being connected to something that’s much bigger than me, much bigger than all of us,” he said. “It’s given me strength. It’s given me clarity. It’s given me inspiration. It’s given me resilience.”
Greater Meaning

Over time, the way that meaning resonates with him has shifted.
“During my first visit back in 1987, where I hadn’t yet even dreamed of being a Tomb Guard, the cemetery seemed surreal and the tomb, an ethereal place,” said Zana, adding that both took on greater significance as he became more familiar with them.
“You see all the headstones, and you recognize there are individuals behind those names,” he said. “These are people, and they all have a story. They all have a life, loved ones, and they all left loved ones behind.”
And after multiple combat deployments, he has a personal connection to some who are buried at Arlington.
“It definitely felt different [coming here] after combat tours,” he said. “Now, when I come back, there’s pieces of each of those feelings that comes forth. And it’s almost like they’re all yelling at the same time, ‘Remember this, remember this.’ And it’s very meaningful.”
The meaning of Arlington National Cemetery isn’t something he takes lightly, he said, just as he doesn’t take lightly what it means to wear the Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge.
The badge itself is one of the rarest Army badges awarded, with Zana holding badge 354 of the 722 bestowed since the badge’s 1958 introduction. Only the Military Horseman Identification Badge, introduced in 2017, and the Army’s Astronaut Badge have been awarded fewer times.
Zana also holds a special distinction among those who have earned the Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge. He is the only one to reach general officer rank and, until his retirement, he was the oldest serving holder.
“I feel very much, in some ways, kind of the junior-most [badge-holder],” Zana said, noting the three decades since he served at the tomb.
Making Connections

But as he picked up one of the M14 rifles that Tomb Guards carry, his motions still showed the practiced precision as he executed the crisp movements. Before assuming his last guard duty, done in private during nonpublic hours at the tomb, he underwent refresher training with current Tomb Guards.
That ensured he continued to hold true to the Tomb Guard’s high standards and polished reverence, he said. And in the time before he went on duty, it also allowed the opportunity to do what many soldiers do during downtime—share stories, which he did with the other Tomb Guards on duty.
“I think the most special thing is seeing him talking to them right now,” said Lt. Col. Agata Zana, Zana’s wife, who was present for his last watch. “They’re swapping stories, and they’re like 30 years apart, but they have the same flavor of stories. ‘We do this, we did this.’ It’s just the details are different. So, this is what it’s about. It’s the people and these connections.”
For Agata Zana, being present for her husband’s last watch was just as meaningful.
“I feel like it’s happening to me. It’s surreal,” she said. “To me, it’s one of those things you can read about, but I’m watching it happen.”
It also gave greater context to many of her husband’s stories.
“I’ve heard all the stories,” she said. “We’ve got pictures at home; we’ve come here for the [guard] changes. And then to go through this, his fingerprints are on everything here. His name is in the logbook, and of course, his badge number is on the wall, and to see it kind of brings it alive, like to see what it meant to him.”
Important Duty

For Zana, one moment during his time as a Tomb Guard sums up the meaning of his experiences at the cemetery and the tomb.
It was a cold, rainy November day, he said. He began walking his guard post and noticed an older man, one of the few members of the public there that day.
“He was wearing a garrison cap,” Zana said. “And he came out there right after the guard change. I saw him out of my peripheral vision.”
The man remained there for the entire hour Zana was on duty guarding the tomb.
“We got to the guard change, and he brought himself to attention, and with a very shaky hand, saluted,” Zana said, adding the man then said, “Thank you, son.”
Zana then broke the sequence—the only time he did, he said—and returned the salute with the rifle and replied, “Thank you, Sir,” before continuing the guard change.
“I don’t know who he was,” Zana said. “But, realizing that what you’re doing as a soldier was helping him to process and reconcile some of the experiences that he had, and to have an 80- or 90-year-old guy just out standing with you for an hour in the cold rain connects you to the importance of the Unknowns to millions of people. The significance of this hallowed ground, and particularly for the Tomb of the Unknowns, it makes you realize you’re doing something that’s very important.”
And that, Zana said, was among the memories he carried as he prepared for his last walk as a Tomb Guard.
But before he performed his final walk, the logbook’s March 28, 1991, entry needed to be updated. Zana made the addendum with a sticky note placed on the page next to the original entry.
It simply read “Not quite,” with a reference to the date of his true last watch as a Tomb Guard: May 31, 2024.
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Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy is the NCO in charge of the Command Information Branch, Office of Public Affairs, National Guard Bureau, Arlington, Virginia. Previously, he served as the public affairs NCO in the Office of the Director, Army National Guard. He deployed once to Kosovo and twice to Iraq. He has a master of fine arts in photography from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco.