He was my Relief Commander (RC) and in the 1969 Christmas Day Wreath laying ceremony, he was the "old man" wreath layer and I was the "new man" who carried the Tomb Guards' Christmas Wreath with Sgt. Ellens.

 I believe this is Sgt. Gordon J. Ellens, RC 1st Relief. He was trained by Sgt. Gerry Weir, who lives in Summit, NJ, my current home town. Gerry and I were linked by Gordon who took over the 1st Relief from Gerry. For all practical purposes, after Sgt. Tom Thompson and Sgt. Wendell Willis left the service, I took over the RC duties of the 1st Relief.

 My inspection had a bit of Gordon's routine and flair. I fondly remember requesting (almost begging) him to teach me a subtle but rather neat horizontal twist near the end of the weapon inspection, before bringing the Sentinel's piece to the reverse port arms position for him to snap it away from my lightly-held grasp.