Fourteen-year-old Bo Pfeifer presented a wreath to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on May 3, describing the event as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Pfeifer and four of his peers from Horizon Christian School in Tualatin were selected last month to participate in the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Pfeifer and his fellow nominees completed an essay assignment, writing about their interest in honoring the veteran and visiting the historical landmark.
Pfeifer has been a cadet in training with the Aurora Civil Air Patrol program for almost a year and said that he was interested in becoming a Navy pilot because of his great-grandfathers’ service in World War II.
“One of them was in the navy, and one of them was in the army for the D-Day landings,” Pfeifer said about his great-grandfathers. “One of them got two Purple Hearts…That just inspired me a lot.”
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Wreath-Laying Ceremonies occur each day at the memorial and feature a diverse array of participants. On certain occasions, such as Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day, the United States President will conduct the ceremony.
Roy Clark, Pfeifer’s grandpa, told Tualatin Life that he knew the wreath laying would be “an amazing experience” for Pfeifer and said that although he didn’t join Pfeifer on his recent trip, he’d visited the memorial before.
“I knew it would be an amazing experience for him,” Clark said. “It’s just a different feeling when you go to the tomb. It’s a feeling you can’t explain that goes over you…So I knew it would be an amazing experience for him.”
Pfeifer referenced his family’s military experience in his essay and said the trip to Arlington left him more impassioned about the military than ever.
“It was awesome,” Pfeifer said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it just inspired me. The guard was full of honor for someone he didn’t even know and that he was protecting, and it gave me a lot more reasons to actually enlist because I want to do the same thing for the country.”
In a press release about the ceremony, Horizon Christian School Principal Kara Hiday said that students “did a very good job.”
“They made me cry,” Hiday said.
Clark mentioned that Pfeifer spent “a lot of time” working on his essay and said that he was very proud of him.
“It’s the journey he had to take to get there,” Clark said. “He put himself in position to do that and he spent a lot of time in Civil Air Patrol and spent a lot of time on that essay and the journey he took to put himself in that position makes me very very proud.”
Pfeifer has recently started flying planes for his Civil Air Patrol cadetship and said he wants to continue achieving his goals and working toward becoming a Navy Pilot.
