Alumni Hall of Fame
Military Service to Country (2025)

“HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLIDER 

KNOWN BUT TO GOD”

This inscription is etched on the West panel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Standing watch at the Tomb 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is a Sentinel or honor guard. It is considered the hardest and rarest of jobs in the Army, with a strict schedule and even stricter requirements for a soldier to be hand-picked to serve. One such soldier, SP4 Lavern E. Pax, a 1953 graduate of St. Marys Memorial High School, attained this honor and served as a Sentinel for eighteen months during 1957-1958. 

Vern was born November 17, 1935, the eleventh of fifteen children to Edmund J. and Frances K. Meyer Pax. He graduated in 1953 and worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. He enlisted in the Army on October 1, 1956, at the age of 20, and completed sixteen weeks of Basic Training with the 9^th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado. There, a colonel picked him out as a possible Sentinel based on his physical attributes. He passed a series of rigorous interviews, met the demanding physical height and weight requirements, and was selected to walk the Army’s top post at Fort Meyer, Virginia – the residence of Army Chief of Staff Maxwell D. Taylor. This assignment was a two-week trial to see if he was a good fit to guard the Tomb. 

Many soldiers aspire to be a Sentinel, yet there have been fewer than 700 who have been selected since the Army began guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in 1926. To be a Sentinel, a soldier must be between 5’10” and 6’4” tall and their waist must be no more than 30 inches. In addition, the soldier must have an unblemished record. They undergo rigorous, extensive training learning the steps and cadences of the walk and the ceremony of changing of the guard. Throughout the training process, most soldiers washout or fail, and they are sent back to their Company. Only twenty percent of applicants are accepted.

SP3 LaVern E. Pax passed these difficult, intense requirements. He stood 6 foot tall, weighed 185 pounds, and had a blemish-free service record. He was officially made a member of an elite unit known as “The Old Guard,” 1^st Battle Group, 3^rd Infantry assigned to Fort Meyer, Virginia, in March 1957. He began his first assignment as a Sentinel on April 2, 1957, working a rigorous 24-hour shift, standing guard six times over the course of 24 hours followed by two days off.

After serving nine months as a Sentinel at the Tomb, SP3 Pax was awarded the second least awarded badge in the Army, the Tomb Guard Identification Badge. On Memorial Day 1958, Sentinel Pax became part of history, standing next to President Dwight B. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon and 200 Medal of Honor recipients at a dedication ceremony to World War II and Korean soldiers. SP3 Pax was personally selected to serve as the honor guard out of the twelve soldiers in the honor guard unit. Pax stood guard as President Eisenhower placed a wreath on the two caskets – one representing the unknown soldier in World War II and one representing the unknown soldier in the Korean War. Pax’s role is cemented in history as the last soldier to stand guard for the single unknown soldier from World War I, and the first Sentinel to stand guard over all three unknown servicemen. 

Vern served eighteen months as a Sentinel, completing his last day of service on October 2, 1958. After being honorably discharged from the Army as a SP4, he returned home to St. Marys and became an insurance agent with Nationwide Insurance Company in 1959. There, he and his wife, Shirley, raised three children – Renee, Dana, and Eric.

In 2008, Pax was given another honor – to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in two separate ceremonies to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the 1958 interment of unknown soldiers from World War II and the Korean War. A 50-member delegation of his family and friends attended the wreath laying ceremony. SP4 Pax passed away on May 7, 2022, at the age of 86. He was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Pataskala, Ohio. The Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, noted his passing, posting, “Rest in Peace brother, we have the watch.”

For his distinguished service as a Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, SP4 Lavern E. Pax is inducted into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation’s Hall of Fame for Military Service to Country.