Just after dawn, and in freezing temperatures, the duo joined a crew of volunteers to help wash the black stone wall engraved with the names of the 58,195 American soldiers who never returned from war.
It was an especially poignant day for Zinke, who served 23 years as a Navy SEAL and whose job now includes overseeing military monuments on the National Mall as well as part of Arlington National Cemetery and battlefields where tens of thousands of soldiers gave their lives.
He’s the first Interior secretary in nearly half a century with military experience, a distinction he says he takes seriously.