It started to rain while president Obama held an outdoor press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, so the president's Marines stepped up and held umbrellas.
These Marines are part of the prestigious Marine Barracks 8th and I — which does ceremonial drill duties, funerals, and presidential support. The guys you see the president saluting when he gets on and off the Marine 1 helicopter are part of HMX-1, another prestigious unit that puts Marines in direct contact with the president.
Finally, very few Marines are selected out of bootcamp to stand Presidential Guard. All these Marines go through a rigorous background checks prior to approval, and are usually Marine infantrymen (except in the case of HMX-1, those are flight Marines).
Correction:
A previous version of this story listed these Marines as part of the White House sentry unit. Former Marine infantry officer John Connor — who served with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines out of Camp LeJeune — shot me an email with the correct details.
It's a two-year duty, then the Marines move on to a fleet unit.
The Marine pictured here is a corporal, the 4th enlisted rank.
