Are you looking for a patriotic way to honor your country while relaxing outdoors after work?
Head to National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Maryland, to watch the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team perform “Drill at Dusk” every Wednesday around 7 p.m. through Sept. 4.
“This will be an annual thing,” U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Andrew Paquin told WTOP.
“The main purpose of it is community engagement and kind of letting people around the area know what our mission is, spreading public awareness about the Air Force mission and the Honor Guard mission alike, and just showing people a bit of what kind of discipline goes into the precision of our team and the rest of the Honor Guard.”
The drill includes a choreographed sequence of thrilling weapon maneuvers, precise tosses, complex weapon exchanges and a walk-through the gauntlet of spinning weapons for a spectacular display of skill and precision.
“The performance will entail a 7-minute drill routine with M1 Garand rifles with a sharpened bayonet at the end of it, as well as having a commander walk through those sharpened bayonets as they are being maneuvered,” U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Eyan Smith told WTOP. “We’ll be throwing those rifles around and also exchanging them.”
Don’t try this at home — these are trained military professionals doing the daring stunts.
“We definitely have it down to an art with a lot of the training that we do, but you definitely will be breathtaken from the performance — it’s very awe-inspiring that you get to see that,” Smith said. “It’s definitely dangerous … but I think it’ll be very fun for the community to come out and see.”
The event brings a variety of families, couples on date nights and even military veterans.
“I saw a lot of Air Force veterans that were familiar with the drill team and were prior service members, so they have an appreciation for what we do and the training that goes into it,” Paquin said. “A lot of training hours and man-hours go into what we do, so it’s nice to have that nice crowd because they appreciate it in different ways.”
It’s all set against the beautiful backdrop of the Potomac River at National Harbor.
“This is National Harbor, so you’ve got the Ferris wheel. You’ve got the view of the river, it’s right at dusk, obviously at sunset, so a beautiful backdrop, you can see D.C. in the background, a very patriotic scene,” Paquin said.
“People from all over D.C., Maryland, Virginia and the whole area are attending with families, there are people going out. A lot of people don’t even know about the performance when they’re showing up, so it’s kind of a nice surprise.”
Paquin and Smith are both currently stationed at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Southwest D.C.
“We’re just focused on readiness and just protecting the country,” Paquin said. “That’s what we do everyday and the attention to detail that we breed here in the Honor Guard is exceptional. That’s our job, so that’s what we do.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
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