Scores of people descended upon Arlington National Cemetery on a chilly but sunny Veterans Day to pay their respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The ceremony at the cemetery, which is the final resting spot for roughly 400,000 service members and their eligible dependents, began by honoring the centennial anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the reincarnated procession that was first conducted on Nov. 11, 1921.
AFGHAN WAR VETS APPROACH VETERANS DAY WITH MIXED EMOTIONS
“One hundred years ago, on Nov. 11, 1921, the World War I Unknown Soldier was transported, by a procession, to his final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery,” Karen Durham-Aguilera, the executive director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and Arlington National Cemetery, said in a statement. “This year, we are recreating elements of that procession, and we invite the public to observe this pivotal moment in American history as thousands of Americans did in 1921.”
Families lined the streets talking quietly among themselves before the morning procession began, winding its way through the interior of the cemetery.
Troops from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Old Guard”), the U.S. Marine Corps Ceremonial and Guard Company, the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, the U.S. Navy Honor Guard, the U.S. Army Band (“Pershing’s Own”), and the U.S. Coast Guard Honor Guard marched in the procession, which included a flyover.
It ended at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was proposed in December 1920 by New York congressman and World War I veteran Hamilton Fish Jr. He had suggested that the United States bury an unknown American soldier at a special tomb to be built in Arlington National Cemetery.
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He said that the idea at the time was “to bring home the body of an unknown American warrior who in himself represents no section, creed, or race in the late war and who typifies, moreover, the soul of America and the supreme sacrifice of her heroic dead.”
President Joe Biden will be laying a wreath on the tomb to honor Veterans Day later in the day.
