Perched atop a hill at Arlington National Cemetery, the American Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands quietly, remembering those heroes lost to the annals of history. Guarded by the elite soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard, this sacred memorial represents a poignant symbol of honor, with each step taken by the silent sentinels echoing with reverence and embodying the gratitude of a nation for those whose identities remain forever shrouded in anonymity.
Around the World: The First Tombs of Unknown Soldiers
Although the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier concept is most often associated with 20th-century war memorials following World War I, the city of Jinju in South Korea had long been the site of the first known tomb dedicated to unknown soldiers. Jinju was the site of two major battles during the Japanese invasions of Korea between 1592 and 1598. Although the Korean forces persevered in holding the Jinju Fortress in the first Battle of Jinju in 1592, they ultimately succumbed to the stronger Japanese troops in the follow-up clash the following year.
Following the Imjin War, the Korean people, seeking to honor the fallen soldiers, including those who could not be identified, built a tomb within the Jinju Fortress dedicated to the honor of the unknown soldiers who had died in the conflict’s battles.
The structure predates the 20th-century concept discussed hereafter by hundreds of years. Although never referred to as a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as those that followed in the Western world after World War I, historians widely recognize Jinju as having set an important precedent for honoring unidentified soldiers who had died in defense of their nation.
Still, looking at unofficial precursors to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, one needs not to venture off too far from one of the concept’s most famous ones, located in the United States at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC. The burial ground itself served as one of the first symbolic places for unknown soldiers to be laid to rest.
Established during the Civil War when General Montgomery Meigs thought it would be a fitting punishment for General Robert E. Lee if he used the Confederate’s land as a burial site for the steadily growing numbers of Union dead, Arlington National Cemetery was by 1866 home to 2,111 unidentified remains of soldiers from battlefields buried in a common grave under a headstone which read:
“Beneath this stone repose the bones of two thousand one hundred eleven unknown soldiers gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run… Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recognized in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace.”
Although it was never called that, this first tomb for unknown soldiers remains at the American cemetery to this day.
World War I Origins
Although many countries would soon follow, including the United States, the idea of burying a lone unknown soldier to symbolize all those lost during the Great War who could not be identified originated in France and Britain. The seemingly simultaneous plans for symbolic tombs came to fruition just a few years after the end of World War I, in which more men lost their lives than ever before.
According to historian K.S. Inglis’s “Entombing Unknown Soldiers,” the British selection was made without publicity, with six unidentified bodies dug up from sites of battle in France and Belgium, sealed in coffins, and driven by six motor ambulances to an army hut near Ypres where an officer was blindfolded and led until his hand touched one of the coffins—the one chosen for the burial.
The French procedure was made much more public. The selection was entrusted to a newly drafted corporal whose father had also been missing and unidentified. Eight coffins were selected and brought to an underground citadel at Verdun, a site of one of the war’s bloodiest battles. Corporal Auguste Train then walked up and randomly placed a bouquet of flowers on one of the coffins.
Both countries buried their chosen unidentified on November 11, 1920, the anniversary of the end of the Great War. The French placed their soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, while the English interred theirs at Westminster Abbey alongside some of England’s most famous leaders and artists.
By the year’s end, the United States, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal would entomb their own unknown soldier, with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Austria and Hungary, and Greece following shortly after that.
The United States Builds Its Tomb
The proposal for the American Tomb of the Unknown Soldier originated from General William D. Connor, the commander of American Forces in France. Having heard of the French and British projects, the very impressed American approached his superiors with the same idea, only for them to reject it.
Initially, the top brass rejected the idea on the grounds that all of the United States’ fallen soldiers would eventually be identified. Many US politicians also expressed their reservations that, compared to the impressive and steeped-in history sites chosen by the French and the British, such places did not exist in the United States. The reservations were dismissed by New York Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr. when he introduced into Congress the resolution to build a tomb to honor unknown soldiers at the Memorial Amphitheater in one of the nation’s most sacred military places, the Arlington National Cemetery.
The idea for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was formalized on March 4, 1921, when Congress officially authorized the burial of an unidentified American soldier from the Great War in a place of high honor. Like their French and British counterparts, the Americans planned their selection process meticulously to ensure it was solemn and random. Four unidentified bodies were exhumed from four different American military cemeteries in France. The four caskets were then transported to the town hall of Chalons-en-Champagne, France, where, on October 24, 1921, US Army Sergeant Edward F. Younger made the final selection. Chosen for being one of the nation’s most decorated World War I veterans, the Purple Heart recipient was blindfolded before randomly placing white roses on one of the four caskets.
The Unknown of World War I
The US government chose the burial ceremony date of November 11, 1921, the third anniversary of the war’s end. The American-flag-draped casket was transported with great reverence back to the United States on the USS Olympia, a historic naval ship that had served as Admiral Dewey’s flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War. Before the ship’s departure, an American band played the national anthem as a French military representative presented the Unknown Soldier with the French Medal of Honor shortly before the pole bearers took the casket aboard.
The Olympia sailed up the Potomac River on November 9, receiving military honors from all military posts along the way. When it finally docked, the casket was greeted by a contingent of distinguished military leaders, including John J. Pershing, the General of American Armies during World War I.
Moved into the Capitol’s rotunda, 90,000 men and women came to pay their respects to the Unknown Soldier. Some of the more well-known individuals who showed up were President Warren G. Harding, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
On November 11, 1921, Armistice Day, a grand and solemn ceremony was held to inter the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. President Harding delivered a poignant speech, emphasizing the nation’s gratitude and the enduring significance of the unknown soldier as a symbol of all those who had fought and died with recognition. The American-flag draped casket was then laid to rest in a specially constructed tomb, one later adorned with a white marble sarcophagus and an inscription that reads: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” A bugler played “Taps,” and the battery fired a twenty-one-gun salute.
The Unknown Soldiers of WWII and Korea
The Great War’s Unknown Soldier lay alone for decades before the United States government decided it was prudent to add more fallen men to the symbolic tomb. With the sarcophagus having been added in 1932, the site became adorned with much symbolism. The tomb’s white marble represented virtues that transcended the Great War, namely victory, valor, and peace.
In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower, the former commanding general of all Allied troops in the Second World War, signed a bill to honor unknown soldiers from World War II and Korea along with the lone American already resting in the Arlington tomb. Like his predecessor, the World War II soldier was selected from bodies exhumed from various European and Pacific American military cemeteries. Two, one from the Pacific and one from the European Theater, were then placed in identical caskets and brought aboard the USS Canberra. Once there, Navy Hospitalman 1st Class William Charette, a Medal of Honor recipient on duty, chose one of the caskets at random while blindfolded. His choice was bound for Arlington, while the other was given a burial at sea with full honors.
The Korean War’s unknown soldiers were disinterred from a single American military cemetery in Hawai’i. Chosen by Army Master Sergeant Ned Lyle at random, the soldier was then placed on the same ship as his World War II counterpart and sent to Washington. The caskets arrived on May 28, 1958, and were placed in the rotunda until May 30, Memorial Day. That morning, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and other dignitaries presented the bodies in a ceremony before they were interned alongside the already buried soldier, creating a unified memorial site that now honored the unidentified dead from the three major conflicts. The American president finished the ceremony by awarding the fallen a symbolic Medal of Honor.
The Unknown Soldier of the Vietnam War
Like the other 20th-century conflicts in which the United States was involved, one of the nation’s most contentious and divisive conflicts in history, the Vietnam War, resulted in numerous unidentified casualties. Keeping with the tradition, the United States decided to include a sole unidentified servicemember from the latest war in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1984, several sets of unidentified remains were exhumed and brought to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawai’i, where, once again, one was chosen at random. The casket was then flown to Travis Air Force Base in California and then the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, from where it was transported to the US Capitol. Just as before, the body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Memorial Day, May 28, 1984, when it was moved to Arlington for the solemn ceremony. President Ronald Reagan awarded the fallen soldier a Medal of Honor and accepted the interment flag as the honorary next of kin.
In 1994, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, Ted Sampley, started researching the specific circumstances of the time and place of the death of the unknown Vietnam soldier. The initial “unknown” designation was assigned to the soldier due to the condition of the fallen man’s body and various kinds of aircraft crashing in the given area at the time. Thus, because it was too difficult to make a credible guess of the man’s identity, the US military concluded that he could not be identified.
Sampley disagreed. Using evidence of personal items found near the body and the single plane’s crash site, the veteran published his findings that the Vietnam Unidentified was likely Lt. Michael J. Blassie. As the claim became national news, the supposed fallen pilot’s family requested the Secretary of Defense to exhume the body to test its DNA. In 1998, Lt. Bassie was positively identified, and his body was returned to his family in St. Louis for a reburial near his childhood home.
After much debate, the American Department of Defense agreed that due to new medical and scientific advancements, it would be unlikely that any soldier would ever truly be unknown. The tomb of the Vietnam fallen was left empty and, instead, rededicated in 1999 with a new inscription, which now reads: “Honoring and Keeping Faith With America’s Missing Servicemen.”
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier now honors both those unidentified and missing in action—the nation’s ongoing commitment to accounting for all service members who remain missing in action, literally or figuratively speaking.
The Old Guard and Silent Sentinels
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier continues to serve as a national shrine, representing the sacrifices made by all American soldiers, as the lone empty crypt reminds Americans of the continued efforts to identify and honor every missing service member. To all who visit the tomb today, the most enduring image is that of the guards who watch over it 24 hours a day.
Interestingly, it was initially left unguarded until 1925, when a civilian guard was hired to watch it. It would not be until the following year when army personnel was assigned to the duty, and not until 1946 when it was permanently assigned to the 3rd US Infantry, a highly decorated Army unit established in 1784 and referred to as the “Old Guard.” The unit’s duties in the Washington DC area include conducting military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, participating in parades, and providing military honors at state functions. Yet, the sentinel’s role at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the most revered among its members.
The process of becoming a sentinel is highly selective and rigorous, including strict requirements of height and physical fitness. Symbolic of the 21-gun salute, the sentinels march 21 steps down the back mat behind the tomb, turn to face east for 21 seconds, then take 21 steps back—all while wearing meticulously maintained and specifically tailored uniforms. Every half-hour from April 1 to September 30 and every hour from October to March 31, a relief commander conducts a detailed inspection of the weapon and the new sentinels before the new guard takes over. Earning the Tomb Guard Identification Badge is a rare and prestigious honor as it is the second-least awarded badge in the US Army.
