Arlington Unveils A New Unknown Soldier

The first headstone stamped "Unknown" since 1984 is the result not of war’s chaos, but of human error

By Mark Benjamin Salon

Oct. 7, 2009 | For the first time in a generation, Arlington National Cemetery has marked the burial of an unknown on its storied grounds. Only this time, 25 years since the last interment at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the identity of the body remains a mystery not because the ravages of war made identification impossible, but because in a bureaucratic error the cemetery lost the paperwork showing the identity of the remains.

Arlington recently installed a headstone marked "Unknown" above grave 449 in section 68 of the cemetery. "A grave marker has been placed at grave 449 in section 68 noting the remains as Unknown," Army spokesman Dave Foster confirmed to Salon in a statement.

LEFT: A headstone for an unknown soldier sits in the empty spot pictured at left on July 21, 2009.

This is the first time the cemetery has marked an unknown since 1984, when Arlington entombed the remains of a Vietnam veteran in the Tomb of the Unknowns in a ceremony rife with pomp and circumstance. Former President Reagan presided, posthumously awarding that service member the Medal of Honor. And that Unknown Soldier was supposed to be the last unknown interred in any U.S. military cemetery, given advances in DNA technology and a multimillion dollar effort to account for every soldier and identify all remains. A body that could not be identified was supposed to be a thing of the past.  Please read the rest at Salon

[Editor’s note: This story is part of a special Salon investigation of problems at Arlington National Cemetery. The first part was excerpted here last week. Bob Higgins]