Tomb of the Unknown Soldier marks 100 years
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On Nov. 11, 1921, the iconic memorial on the grounds of the Arlington National Cemetery provided a final resting place for one of America’s unidentified World War I servicemen. Unknowns from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars were added in 1958 and 1984.
Identity crisis
As long as there have been wars, the consequences have been large numbers of unidentified dead. The Arlington Cemetery website attributes the lack of ability to identify remains to a variety of reasons which included poor record keeping, the damage inflicted on bodies, lack of time and lack of personal identification. While the national cemetery system was created during the Civil War (1861-1865), it is estimated that nearly half of Civil War dead were never identified.
The policy of repatriation, return to the United States, was implemented during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and new Army regulations required remains be buried in temporary graves with identifying information. It was at this time that the Army’s Quartermaster Corps employed a burial corps which increased identifications significantly.
Upon America’s entry into World War I in 1917, servicemen received aluminum identification discs, the precursor to “dog tags.” A new unit, the Graves Registration Service, was created in the Quartermaster Corps to oversee burials but with more than 100,000 U.S. casualties in Europe, repatriation was even more challenging.
A national resting place
According to information provided by Arlington National Cemetery, it was New York congressman and World War I veteran Hamilton Fish, Jr. who proposed legislation in December 1920 to provide for the internment of one unknown American soldier at a special tomb to be built at the national cemetery.
The purpose of Fish’s legislation was “to bring home the body of an unknown American warrior who in himself represents no section, creed or race in the late war and who typifies, moreover the soul of America and the supreme sacrifice of her heroic dead.”
In October 1921, the selection of the Unknown was made from four bodies ex humed from military cemeteries in France and arrived at the Washington Navy Yard Nov. 9. After lying in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Nov. 10 with 90,000 visitors paying their respects, the Unknown was interred Nov. 11.
In 1958, Unknowns from both World War II and the Korean War were selected and placed in crypts to the west of the World War I Unknown.
DNA and an empty tomb
By May 1984, only one set of American remains recovered from Vietnam had not been identified and they were interred on Memorial Day. Fourteen years later, thanks to DNA testing, the Department of Defense and its civilian partners were able to identify the Unknown as Air Force First Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, a pilot shot down in 1972. At the request of Blassie’s family, he was transferred to the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, and the crypt designed for the Vietnam War Unknown remains vacant. It was rededicated to honor all missing service members from the Vietnam War on National POW/MIA Recognition Day on Sept. 17, 1999.
In 1926, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was guarded by soldiers from nearby Fort Myers during daylight hours only, but guards became a 24/7 presence in 1937. There is a strict selection process and intensive training for service members who volunteer to become Tomb Guards.
One hundred years after the burial of the World War I Unknown, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remains a place of mourning, a site for reflection on military service and a symbol of service and sacrifice.
For more detailed information on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, go to www. arlingtoncemetery.mil.