Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

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The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the silent sentinel, is located at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It was erected in 1921 as an eternal resting place for the unknown American soldier killed in France during World War I. It serves as a monument to all unknown American servicemen who died serving their country in the Great War.

In the future, the United States became embroiled in other conflicts, such as World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, during which hundreds of thousands of American lives were lost. The identities of many of these fallen servicemen were never determined, and they too were honored by the burial of unknown soldiers near their comrades from World War I. From then on, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier became a monument to the memory of all unknown servicemen who died fighting for the United States.

More recently, the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial was built in Irvine, California, to remember all the fallen American heroes of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts since 2003. The idea of building a monument to the unknown fallen soldiers arose after World War I, during which the United States lost over 130,000 servicemen. Many of these men were buried far from their homes in special mass cemeteries in France near the battlefields where they lost their lives.

The number of those whose identities were unknown was significant, similar to the situation with other combatant countries. The French and British were the first to create tombs for their unknown soldiers. In France, the tomb was placed at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, while the unknown British soldier was buried inside Westminster Abbey. Soon, the idea was adopted by other countries in Europe.

In the United States, Brigadier General William D. Connor, who commanded American troops in France during the war, advocated for a similar idea after hearing of the French project. He proposed the idea to Chief of Staff General Peyton C. March on October 29, 1919, but it was dismissed as it was thought that the Army Graves Registration Service would eventually identify all American dead, eliminating the need for such a memorial.

On December 21, 1920, Congressman Hamilton Fish Jr. introduced a resolution calling for the body of an unidentified American soldier killed in France to be returned to the United States and placed in a tomb to be specially built at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery. Congress approved this measure on March 4, 1921. Arlington was already known as the burial place of unknown American soldiers, established during the American Civil War on land that belonged to Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The Union Army used it to bury 16,000 of its soldiers. After the war, in 1866, the bodies of 2,111 unidentified soldiers killed at the Battle of Bull Run were reburied in a mass grave marked by a stone monument. Arlington was the perfect location for the new tomb, but the question remained: how would they select who should be buried inside?

While waiting for congressional approval to build the tomb in March 1921, the United States already had 1,200 dead soldiers whose identities were still being processed. The Army wanted to ensure that there was no possibility of the chosen unknown soldier’s body being identified later. Eventually, in September 1921, four bodies were exhumed—one from each of the four American cemeteries in France. The bodies were inspected to confirm that the soldiers had died from combat wounds and that there were no records of their identification.

After the inspection, the bodies were placed in caskets and sent to Shalom Sermon. There, the honor of choosing the body for the tomb was given to Sergeant Edward S. Younger, a highly decorated infantryman still on active duty. The day before, American and French soldiers moved the caskets around to ensure no one knew from which cemetery each of them came. Sergeant Younger made his choice by placing a spray of roses on top of one of the caskets. The body of the unknown soldier was then placed in a sealed coffin and shipped to the States aboard the USS Olympia. The other three bodies were buried in a cemetery near Paris.

The unknown soldier’s body arrived in Washington on November 9, 1921. It was displayed the following day in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, where 90,000 citizens paid their respects in just one day. On November 11, 1921, the anniversary of Armistice Day, the body was taken in a funeral procession from the Capitol to Arlington Cemetery, where a state funeral ceremony was held. A field artillery battery from the nearby Capitol Mall fired a salvo every minute during the procession, pausing only during the two-minute period of silence at the beginning of the ceremony before the body was laid in the tomb. President Warren G. Harding placed a Medal of Honor on the coffin, and Admiral of the Fleet Lord Beatty laid the Victoria Cross medal on the coffin on behalf of King George V and the British public.

The original tomb from 1921 consisted of only a three-level slab made of white marble, projected to serve as a foundation for a bigger monument yet to be built. In 1926, Congress authorized the completion of the tomb by placing an appropriate monument on the existing foundation. A competition was held to design the structure, won by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones and architect Lorimer Rich, who were awarded the contract to build the monument.

The neoclassical monument, shaped like a sarcophagus, was made of the finest and whitest American marble, the Yule marble. The monument was impressive, standing 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall, 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide, and 13 feet 11 inches (4.2 meters) long. The base had a width of 6 feet 8 inches (2 meters) and a length of 12 feet 7 inches (3.8 meters). The entire tomb weighed an enormous 160,000 pounds (80 tons).

The north and south panels of the monument were decorated with six inverted wreaths separated by Doric pilasters. The initial idea was for the wreaths to represent the world of memories, but they later became symbols of the six largest World War I battles in which American forces fought. The east panel, facing the city of Washington, featured three figures representing peace, victory, and valor, as well as three allies from the war: the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. The opposite panel, facing the amphitheater, had an inscription carved upon it: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.”

The monument was mounted on the existing tomb in December 1931, giving it the appearance we see today. In the early days, there weren’t any guards posted at the monument; it was only in 1925 that a unit was deployed to watch the monument during the day. In 1926, the monument was put under permanent 24-hour watch. There wasn’t any particular unit assigned for the duty at the time, but they all came from the Army as the oldest branch of the armed forces.

However, in 1946, the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was permanently assigned to the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment, better known as the Old Guard. The Third Infantry was one of the oldest units of the U.S. Army and was responsible for performing all ceremonial duties in the Capitol and for protecting it in emergencies. Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is considered the most honorable of all their duties, but it is also one of their most onerous, as it calls for nothing less than perfection.

All members of the Third Infantry Regiment are eligible for the duty, which is carried out on a voluntary basis. To become a sentinel of the tomb, one must have an impeccable military record and pass rigorous tests and interviews. Those who meet the requirements undergo intensive training with the goal of achieving perfection in every aspect of sentinel duty.

The duty of a sentinel is highly stressful, as it is subject to constant review and inspection to maintain the set standard. For this reason, many sentinels give up or are withdrawn from duty after only a few months. Those who remain in service for more than nine months are entitled to wear the sentinel badge permanently, along with an insignia in the shape of the tomb with laurels around it and the inscription “Honor Guard.”

Apart from the badge, tomb sentinels are distinctive for their impeccable Army dress blue uniforms and sunglasses, which they wear because of the bright reflection of the white marble. While on duty, sentinels protect the tomb by marching back and forth on a 63-foot (19-meter) rubber mat placed on a plateau west of the tomb. The path must be crossed in exactly 21 steps, after which the sentinel makes a 21-second pause, turns around, makes another 21-second pause, and walks back in 21 steps.

The symbolism of the number is connected to the 21-gun salute, the highest salute used in military ceremonies. Throughout the duty, the sentinel keeps his weapon on his shoulder closest to the visitors as a gesture of protecting the tomb from all threats. If a visitor violates the restricted area, the sentinel brings his rifle to the front as a warning sign. If the warning fails, only then will he shout out a warning. Apart from that, the entire duty is performed in complete silence, hence the nickname “The Silent Sentinels.”

Guards are relieved every half hour in the ceremony of changing guards. An officer of the guard inspects the guard’s uniform and weapons. During wintertime, guards change every hour, while on night shifts, the change takes place every two hours. For 35 years, the tomb was a monument to the soldiers fallen in World War I. Only in 1956 did President Eisenhower sign a bill to honor the unknown soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean War in the same manner.

True to tradition, the internment ceremony that took place in 1958 was exactly the same as the one held in 1921. When choosing the remains of a World War II unknown soldier, one body was taken from the European theater of war and one from the Pacific. The Korean unknown soldier was chosen from among four bodies exhumed from the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. Both unknown soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor before their bodies were interred in the crypts on the plateau west of the tomb on May 30, 1958.

The last unknown soldier to be interred at the site was one from the Vietnam War, whose body was laid in a new crypt placed between his comrades from World War II and Korea on May 28, 1984, Memorial Day. Ten years later, however, independent research determined the probable identity of the soldier. A DNA test taken in 1998 positively identified the body as belonging to Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie. After his family expressed a wish to bury Blassie in his hometown, the body was exhumed, leaving the crypt empty. From then on, it represented the memory of all those American servicemen whose bodies were never found.

Even though it has no official name, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the most iconic monument at Arlington National Cemetery, reminding the nation of all those who made the ultimate sacrifice in serving their country.