Okla-homey
10/23/2008, 06:41 AM
October 23, 1921: Unknown Soldier is selected
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/2672/tomb768pxtomboftheunknovi0.th.jpg
87 years ago today, in the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, an American officer selects the body of the first "Unknown Soldier" to be honored among the approximately 77,000 United States servicemen killed on the Western Front during World War I.
According to the official records of the Army Graves Registration Service deposited in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, four bodies were transported to Chalons from the cemeteries of Aisne-Marne, Somme, Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel.
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8632/tomb051215f3050v227bv4.th.jpg
All were great battlegrounds, and the latter two regions were the sites of two offensive operations in which American troops took a leading role in the decisive summer and fall of 1918. As the service records stated, the identity of the bodies was completely unknown: "The original records showing the internment of these bodies were searched and the four bodies selected represented the remains of soldiers of which there was absolutely no indication as to name, rank, organization or date of death."
The four bodies arrived at the Hotel de Ville in Chalons-sur-Marne on October 23, 1921. At 10 o’clock the next morning, French and American officials entered a hall where the four caskets were displayed, each draped with an American flag.
Sergeant Edward Younger, the man given the task of making the selection, carried a spray of white roses with which to mark the chosen casket. According to the official account, Younger "entered the chamber in which the bodies of the four Unknown Soldiers lay, circled the caskets three times, then silently placed the flowers on the third casket from the left. He faced the body, stood at attention and saluted."
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/2521/tomb800pxtombguardchangln1.th.jpg
Changing of the Guard at the Tomb
Bearing the inscription "An Unknown American who gave his life in the World War," the chosen casket traveled to Paris and then to Le Havre, France, where it would board the cruiser Olympia for the voyage across the Atlantic. Once back in the United States, the Unknown Soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. where he rests today, joined by the remains of unidentified men lost in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
HERE RESTS IN
HONORED GLORY
AN AMERICAN
SOLDIER
KNOWN BUT TO GOD
-- inscription on the Tomb
In 1998, the Vietnam Unknown was positively identified through the use of DNA. The remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, who was shot down in his AT-37 "Dragonfly" near An Loc, Vietnam in 1972 arrived home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri; he was reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in keeping with the wishes of his family.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4376/tomb200pxmichaelblassiexf7.th.jpg
1LT Michael Joseph Blassie, USAF, April 4, 1948 – May 11, 1972 (aged 24), here seen in his USAFA uniform.
The crypt which once held the remains of the Vietnam Unknown, has been replaced. The original inscription of "Vietnam" and the dates of the conflict has been changed to "Honoring and Keeping Faith with America's Missing Servicemen." as a reminder of the commitment of the Armed Forces to fullest possible accounting of missing service members
Although the remaining Unknowns will probably never be identified, advances in DNA research and technology have made it quite possible there will never again be an American Unknown Soldier.
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/2672/tomb768pxtomboftheunknovi0.th.jpg
87 years ago today, in the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, an American officer selects the body of the first "Unknown Soldier" to be honored among the approximately 77,000 United States servicemen killed on the Western Front during World War I.
According to the official records of the Army Graves Registration Service deposited in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, four bodies were transported to Chalons from the cemeteries of Aisne-Marne, Somme, Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel.
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8632/tomb051215f3050v227bv4.th.jpg
All were great battlegrounds, and the latter two regions were the sites of two offensive operations in which American troops took a leading role in the decisive summer and fall of 1918. As the service records stated, the identity of the bodies was completely unknown: "The original records showing the internment of these bodies were searched and the four bodies selected represented the remains of soldiers of which there was absolutely no indication as to name, rank, organization or date of death."
The four bodies arrived at the Hotel de Ville in Chalons-sur-Marne on October 23, 1921. At 10 o’clock the next morning, French and American officials entered a hall where the four caskets were displayed, each draped with an American flag.
Sergeant Edward Younger, the man given the task of making the selection, carried a spray of white roses with which to mark the chosen casket. According to the official account, Younger "entered the chamber in which the bodies of the four Unknown Soldiers lay, circled the caskets three times, then silently placed the flowers on the third casket from the left. He faced the body, stood at attention and saluted."
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/2521/tomb800pxtombguardchangln1.th.jpg
Changing of the Guard at the Tomb
Bearing the inscription "An Unknown American who gave his life in the World War," the chosen casket traveled to Paris and then to Le Havre, France, where it would board the cruiser Olympia for the voyage across the Atlantic. Once back in the United States, the Unknown Soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. where he rests today, joined by the remains of unidentified men lost in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
HERE RESTS IN
HONORED GLORY
AN AMERICAN
SOLDIER
KNOWN BUT TO GOD
-- inscription on the Tomb
In 1998, the Vietnam Unknown was positively identified through the use of DNA. The remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, who was shot down in his AT-37 "Dragonfly" near An Loc, Vietnam in 1972 arrived home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri; he was reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in keeping with the wishes of his family.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4376/tomb200pxmichaelblassiexf7.th.jpg
1LT Michael Joseph Blassie, USAF, April 4, 1948 – May 11, 1972 (aged 24), here seen in his USAFA uniform.
The crypt which once held the remains of the Vietnam Unknown, has been replaced. The original inscription of "Vietnam" and the dates of the conflict has been changed to "Honoring and Keeping Faith with America's Missing Servicemen." as a reminder of the commitment of the Armed Forces to fullest possible accounting of missing service members
Although the remaining Unknowns will probably never be identified, advances in DNA research and technology have made it quite possible there will never again be an American Unknown Soldier.