Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier, unidentified remains of a soldier killed in action, ceremonially entombed as the representative of all the war dead of his or her country. After World War I many nations selected an unknown soldier as a tribute to those who had died in combat.

The most famous American memorial for unidentified soldiers killed in combat is located at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Though it was never officially named, the memorial has come to be known as the Tomb of the Unknowns or the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In 1921 a soldier who had died in France during World War I (1914-1918) was interred at the site. A massive marble tomb was placed on the site of the original grave in 1932. An inscription on the walls of the tomb reads: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” On Memorial Day 1958 two other unknown soldiers, one who served in World War II (1939-1945) and one who fought in the Korean War (1950-1953), were also buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; on Memorial Day in 1984, a soldier who served in the Vietnam War (1959-1975) was interred.

In 1998 the remains of the soldier killed during the Vietnam War were removed from the tomb and identified through genetic testing (see DNA fingerprinting). The tests showed that the remains belonged to First Lieutenant Michael Blassie, an Air Force pilot whose helicopter was shot down near Xóm An Lôc, Vietnam, in 1972. In 1998 his family buried the remains near Blassie’s childhood home in St. Louis. In 1999 Pentagon officials decided not to inter another unknown soldier from the Vietnam war in the empty tomb, arguing that technology had advanced to the point that every soldier from recent conflicts could conceivably be identified.

The unknown soldier of the United Kingdom is buried in Westminster Abbey, in London; the unknown soldier of France lies under the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris; the Belgian unknown soldier is in a tomb at the base of the Colonnade of the Congress, in Brussels; and the Italian unknown soldier is buried in Rome, in front of the monument to King Victor Emmanuel II. Special ceremonies are held on Armistice Day (now known as Veterans Day in the U.S.) to honor the unknown soldiers. Tribute is also paid to the American unknown soldiers on Memorial Day. France pays similar tribute on Bastille Day.