JFK: The final salute

For hours, the young cadets waited, standing at attention by the freshly dug grave — a striking tableau in their crisp, green tunics and brown breeches, rifles by their sides.

Fifty years later, they remember those hours as an eternity, the muffled beat of the distant drums growing louder as the funeral procession crossed the Potomac River and entered Arlington National Cemetery.

They were closer to the grave than anyone, this chosen honour guard, about to deliver the performance of their lives.