Tomb of the Unknowns. Located in Arlington National Cemetery and originally known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, this memorial contains the graves of three unidentified servicemen who each individually symbolize the sacrifice of all American servicemen who died in the nation's twentieth‐century wars. Established under a congressional mandate and patterned after similar memorials in Europe created after World War I, the first Unknown was entombed on 11 November 1921 after a state funeral stressing the theme of selfless sacrifice of the individual to the nation. This and subsequent ceremonies portrayed the Unknown Soldier as representative of a national vision transcending class, ethnic, racial, regional, and religious differences.

The tomb was originally conceived as a memorial to World War I, once called the “war to end all wars,” but events after 1939 required a reinterpretation. In 1950, the Defense Department planned to add a grave for an unidentified serviceman from the World War II, but the outbreak of the Korean War interrupted these arrangements. In 1958 the Defense Department entombed Unknown Soldiers for both World War II and Korea. On Memorial Day 1984, an Unknown Serviceman from the Vietnam War was included.

With advances in genetic testing, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen in 1998 ordered the exhumation of the Unknown from the Vietnam War to determine whether the body could be identified. Sophisticated DNA testing confirmed that the remains were those of First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie of the U.S. Air Force, who was then interred privately.

Bibliography

B.C. Mossman and and M.W. Stark , The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funerals, 1921–1969, 1971.
G. Kurt Piehler , Remembering War the American Way, 1995.

G. Kurt Piehler

UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMB OF THE

UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMB OF THE, in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 1921 by President Warren G. Harding as a memorial to all American soldiers and sailors who lost their lives in World War I. An unknown serviceman was chosen and buried with a two-inch layer of earth brought

from France so that he could rest on the earth on which he died. The tomb itself was not completed until 1932. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower participated in ceremonies at which two other nameless soldiers, one to represent members of the armed forces lost in World War II and one to represent those who died in the Korean War, were also buried in the tomb. At that time, the monument was renamed the Tomb of the Unknowns. In 1973, Congress authorized plans to add a burial place for an unidentified casualty of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam unknown was interred in 1984, although his remains were disinterred in May 1998 after his body was identified using methods previously unavailable. His body was returned to his family, and the crypt remains empty. The bodies within the tomb have been selected with great care to avoid future identification. The present tomb was designed by Thomas Hudson Jones and Lorimer Rich and dedicated in 1932 on the site of a former uncompleted monument. A perpetual military guard is maintained at the tomb.

Frederick P.Todd

HonorSachs

See alsoCemeteries, National ; Memorial Day ; Prisoners of War andvol. 9:Dedicating the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier .