 Greetings from the National Archives flagship building in Washington, D.C., which sits on the Ancestral Lands of the Nacotja Tank Peoples. I'm David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to today's discussion on records of the National Archives relating to Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In this second part of a two-part presentation, Arlington National Cemetery historian Allison Finkelstein and National Archives Archivist John Deben, Eric Kilgore, Lauren Theodore, and Eric von Slander will discuss textual records, the written word. I want to thank Arlington National Cemetery and historian Stephen Carney, Allison Finkelstein, and Timothy Frank for partnering with us on these presentations and for their tireless support in our efforts to preserve and protect the records about the tomb and make them accessible for education and historical research. I also want to acknowledge and thank the National Archives staff involved for their hard work and dedication in making these presentations a reality. Before we begin, though, I'd like to tell you about two upcoming programs you can view on our YouTube channel. On Wednesday, September 29th at 1 p.m., author Andrew O'Shaughnessy will be joined by University of Maryland history professor Holly Brewer to discuss O'Shaughnessy's latest book, The Elimitable Freedom of the Human Mind, Thomas Jefferson's Idea of a University. And on Wednesday, October 6th at 1 p.m., Jonathan White will discuss his book to address My Friend, a collection of more than 120 letters from African-Americans to Abraham Lincoln, most of which have never before been published. One hundred years ago this November, the tomb of the unknown soldier was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery. The tomb and the cemetery honor the service and sacrifice of more than 400,000 members of our nation's armed forces and their next of kin who are buried there. As a veteran myself, I am pleased and honored to introduce today's panel discussion. Our written records relating to Arlington National Cemetery are rich, diverse and expansive. Today we will see and hear of many examples including Civil War era records that document the formation of the cemetery which was to become Arlington National Cemetery in 1864. You will hear about records of the design and construction for the tomb of the unknown soldier in Memorial Amphitheater and follow the journey from the selection of the unknown from those fallen on the battlefields of France to the ceremonial arrival at Arlington National Cemetery to the later choice to place guards at the tomb. You will learn about First Lieutenant Michael Blasey from documents in his official military personnel file. Blasey was killed in action during the Vietnam War and interred as the unknown of that conflict. In 1998, using DNA analysis, his remains were identified and reinterred in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. The records of Arlington National Cemetery and the tomb of the unknown soldier provide deeper historical context to the people, places and events of our past. We invite you to explore our records and contact us if you have any questions as you embark on your process of research and discovery. Our moderator for today's discussion is Allison Finkelstein who is Senior Historian at Arlington National Cemetery. Her first book, Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials, How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945, was published by the University of Alabama Press last month. A specialist on World War I, she served as Chair of the Arlington County World War I Commemoration Task Force. Now let's turn to Allison Finkelstein to get our program started. Thank you for joining us. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us for part two of our webinar series about National Archives records related to the tomb of the unknown soldier. Arlington National Cemetery is thrilled to be partnering with the National Archives, and we would like to thank them for hosting us today. We also want to thank the Archivist of the United States for his opening remarks, our wonderful panelists, the whole cemetery team, and the many National Archives staff members who made this event possible, especially Carol Swain, Tom Nastic, Daniel Rooney, and Megan Ryan Guthorn. Our program today is going to consist of three parts. First, I will give a very brief introduction to the webinar and the tomb of the unknown soldier Centennial Commemoration of which it is a part. Second, our three featured panelists from the National Archives, also known as NARA, will each share their presentations. Third, after their remarks, I will ask the panelists a few questions before opening it up to audience questions. I will then conclude the program by sharing some resources about how you can participate in the tomb of the unknown soldier Centennial. So let's begin. Although Arlington National Cemetery and the National Archives are two government agencies with vastly different missions, as you will learn, we are actually deeply connected through our historic records. The National Archives, of course, is the nation's official steward and caretaker of our government records. They perform the critical function of collecting, preserving, and making these records accessible to the public. Arlington National Cemetery, on the other hand, is the nation's premier military cemetery, founded in 1864 during the Civil War. Today, it remains both an active cemetery and a historic site rooted in critical chapters of our nation's past. In addition to our cemetery functions, we also tell the story of the cemetery's history through museum exhibits, our education program, public events, publications, and much more. I encourage you to visit our website to learn more. This year, Arlington National Cemetery is in the midst of an important anniversary. Centennial of the creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on November 11th, 1921. The cemetery has been designated as the official government leader of the Tomb Centennial. To fulfill this mission, we have developed an exciting program of events, ceremonies, and projects throughout this year. For example, we opened two new museum exhibits about the tomb. We are working on two publications about the tomb's history, and we are leading a monthly virtual event of which today's webinar is a part. And at the end of our webinar, I will share some resources about our tomb's centennial program and how you can hopefully participate. As part of this official centennial commemoration, today's webinar focuses on the rich resources of the National Archives and how they play a key role in interpreting the history of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Specifically, we are going to talk about textual records to continue our discussion from last week's webinar about special media records. Our purpose is to show how crucial National Archives records are to Arlington National Cemetery's mission to preserve, honor, and interpret the tomb's history. Very often, members of the public come to the Arlington History Office and ask us for access to various historic resources about the tomb or the cemetery in general. Now, while we do have a small historical research collection, we have to tell these people that actually the records related to the tomb and the cemetery are not in fact held by the cemetery. Rather, they are held by the National Archives, and many people are surprised to learn this, and they're often unaware that the National Archives is the steward of such resources. Time and again, we explain that it is the National Archives that holds the key materials about the cemetery's history, and that we, like the general public, must go to the National Archives ourselves and research in those records. And until the onset of the pandemic, that is exactly what our team did. We made frequent research trips to the National Archives in College Park and DC. We consulted with archivists, we dug through finding aids, and we requested cart after cart of records. Of course, that all changed with the onset of the pandemic and the closure of the research rooms to the public. In the year and a half since, our team has had a lot of time to reflect upon the importance of the National Archives to our work, as we truly learned how hard it was to complete our projects without normal access to the records. Much to his credit, my colleague Tim Frank had spent years scanning records related to the tomb, which enabled us to do a lot of our research, but we were lacking and we still lack many records that we want. And as we've reviewed these scan sources without normal access to NARA, we felt compelled to share with the public how important NARA is to the study of the tomb. I cannot emphasize this enough. No history about the tomb of the unknown soldier can be completed without using NARA records. All of our centennial projects, our forthcoming publications, our museum exhibits, our web projects, education module, every social media post, they can only be completed with NARA records. In our office, we have deeply felt the loss of access to the National Archives like so many other researchers. And we realized anew the importance of NARA to our work and we wanted to share that with the public. But it's not just the NARA records that help us do our work. It is the archivists themselves. They are valuable experts with knowledge and endless patience who help researchers like us. During the pandemic, we have missed collaborating with these archivists. They are gatekeepers who help us find the records we need and we could not do our jobs without them. By shining the spotlight on them today in this two-part webinar series, we are delighted to share their talents with the public. It is really a rare treat to be able to connect you with these expert archivists. And I know that by the end of this program, you will all understand just how important they are to preserving the legacy of the tomb. During this program, you will also learn about how the National Archives is the repository for records that span the entire history of Arlington National Cemetery. Some of our presenters will be sharing records related to the cemetery's early years. These are important for understanding the context of the tomb and why Arlington was selected as the site for it. This was not always a foregone conclusion and much debate actually happened before Congress eventually agreed to locate the tomb at Arlington. In the end, it was Arlington's origins as a civil war cemetery and its evolution into the host of the National Memorial Day Observance that elevated Arlington's status and made it the ideal symbolic site for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. With that context in place, it is my pleasure to now introduce our panelists. Our first panelist is John P. Deven. John is a military archivist with the Archives I Reference Section and has been with the National Archives in D.C. since 2003. John provides reference assistance for old Army records and he has lectured and written about federal records of genealogical interest. He has spoken to various groups including the National Genealogical Society, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and the National Institute on Genealogical Research. His articles have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Prologue, American Ancestors, and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. John holds BA and MA degrees in American History from Gettysburg College and the Pennsylvania State University. Next, we have Lauren Theodore and Eric Van Slander from Archives 2 in College Park. Lauren Theodore has been with the National Archives since 2015 and with the Textual Reference Brantz since 2017. She currently serves as an Archives specialist working with Army and Air Force records. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Florida State University and a Masters in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Eric Van Slander has been employed in several capacities by the National Archives at College Park for 20 years. He currently works as an archivist on the Army team in the Archives 2 Textual Reference Branch. He holds Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies and a Master of Arts and History from the City College of New York. He also has a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland and a Doctor of Liberal Studies with a concentration in American Foreign Relations from Georgetown University. Finally, we have Eric Kilgore from the National Archives in St. Louis. Eric Kilgore has been with the National Archives since 2010 with the majority of that time spent in the research room at the National Archives at St. Louis. He currently serves as an Archives specialist for on-site reference and special projects. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History as well as a Master of Arts in History from the University of Missouri. John, I will now pass the presentation over to you for the start of the second part of the webinar. Thank you. All right, thank you very much, Allison. I'm going to be highlighting some of the important records that we have relating to the Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at our main building in the National Archives building in downtown Washington, D.C. where I work. If we could go to the next slide, please. First, I'd like to give you a quick overview of the facility itself. This is the main National Archives building that opened to the public when the agency was created in 1934. And as you can see from at least the partial list of types of records that we have, we do have a variety of material relating to executive agency records of all three branches of government, executive agency records like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, census records, immigration, U.S. Custom Service and other maritime agencies, as well as judicial records relating to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal District Courts for the District of Columbia and also the records of Congress, the U.S. House and Representatives, which are held by the Center for Legislative Archives, which is also located at our downtown facility. So the records that I'm going to highlight are mostly located as part of the old military records that we have. And for these records include for the Army, it includes the older material from the Revolutionary War up to the beginning of World War I. And for the Navy and Marine Corps, it includes the Revolution up to roughly the beginning of World War II. So if you could go to the next slide please. Because Archives I's holds the older military records downtown, there's actually a limited amount of information about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier itself with one important exception that I'll get to at the end. But we do have a good deal of records about the history of Arlington National Cemetery. And these are located in the records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92. During the Civil War, the War Department for the first time took formal responsibility for the disposition of the remains of military personnel. Before the Civil War this had really not been much of a concern to the War Department because wars were kind of the casualties of earlier wars were limited in nature and scope. So there was really no formal oversight of the disposition of remains that was usually handled privately after the initial battlefield burials. But the unprecedented scope of the fighting and the human carnage experienced during the Civil War and necessitated a more formal accounting of battlefield and hospital deaths to make sure that bodies were properly identified and buried. And this responsibility was given to the Quartermaster Department. And this, of course, is what led to the whole National Cemetery movement. So the first important series that we have is the Consolidated Correspondence File in Record Group 92. This is a large historical file which was compiled by the Quartermaster's Department by taking important documents from other letter files and consolidating them by subject matter into this larger artificial file. So there is a category in this file relating to Arlington and it covers documents relating to the mansion itself, Arlington estate and, of course, the cemetery and Union soldier burials as well as specific information about the mortuary chapel and Arlington vault and those projects that were undertaken. And these include some of the earliest and most important records that we have relating to Arlington Cemetery. If we go to the next slide, please. This is an official copy of the letter from Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs to the Secretary of War formally recommending Arlington estate for use as a national military cemetery. It's dated June 15, 1864, which is the date generally accepted as the founding of Arlington National Cemetery. And the next slide, this is the official memorandum issued by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton officially designating the Arlington mansion and the grounds as a military cemetery. And you'll see this is also dated June 15, 1864. So these records, these documents are located specifically in this series. Now, when I was looking at this series, one of the interesting things that I found were a lot of documents relating to the tomb of the Civil War unknowns, which was a separate memorial that was dedicated by the War Department in 1866 just after the Civil War ended. It's a tomb that included the remains of over 2,000 unidentified Union soldiers that were recovered from the Bull Run battlefields and other areas along the Northern Virginia corridor after the war. So this can certainly be regarded as a forerunner of the modern tomb of the unknown soldier, I think. And like I said, we do have letters of correspondence and other documents relating to that tomb. If you go to the next slide, please. One example I picked here was a drawing actually showing the inscription that was suggested for inclusion on the vault of that tomb. The document is dated September 24, 1866, which is around a time that the tomb was dedicated. And this is the inscription that they came up with to place on that tomb. Next slide, please. We also have a general series of correspondence and reports relating to national cemeteries and post cemeteries, which we generally refer to as the cemetery files. These are very much like the administrative records that have survived relating to a number of national cemeteries, including Arlington. And this is where you'll find a lot of the day-to-day records that were kept by the superintendents and other personnel who worked there at the cemeteries. There are three boxes of records that relate specifically to Arlington National Cemetery. And they include a variety of different administrative records, including letters, different types of reports, newspaper clippings, and other blueprints and drawings and elevations relating to specific projects relating to the cemetery. Next slide. This document here is an example of a monthly report for the cemetery that was dated May 1878. And it gives you a pretty much a general overview of the condition of the cemetery during that month. And it's pretty thorough. It covers a description of each aspect of the cemetery, including the mansion, the graves itself, the scenery, the landscaping, everything that you could possibly consider, and it offers them suggestions for improvement if there are things that need to be fixed or corrected. And like I said, it gives you a general overview of the condition of the cemetery. The third page of the document is rather interesting because it suggests repairs to the mansion. It says the repairs to the main building should be done as early as it is dangerous to be near the house during heavy wind stormed when the slate of the roof blows off. So that gives you kind of interesting detail about the kinds of things that they were dealing with in maintaining and caring for the cemetery. Next slide, please. This is an example of Sexton's morning report for the cemetery. And this was basically the way that they kept track of interments and exhumations during in the cemetery. So these are daily reports. This one is dated July 31st, 1865, and it just shows that three remains were buried in the cemetery that day. And it gives the names of the soldiers, their grave locations, their unit information, and where the remains originally came from. Next slide. We also have a specific series of Sexton's records of death and internment in Record Group 92. And these are reports that are very similar to records of death and internment that were also filled out for individual soldiers who died during the war. And these reports were later filed as part of their individual military service records. But we have a series for the cemetery as well. And it gives you a lot of, if the information is available, it gives you a lot of different data about the deceased person including their name, the location of the grave. It gives you their military information. And it even gives you some personal information if available, including their residence before they enlisted, their marital status if known. And it also gives you the cause of death, their age, their place of birth if known, and the date that they died and the date of burial. Next slide. This is an example of a typical report. And in keeping with today's theme, this report documents an unknown soldier, an unidentified member of Company G of the 18th Maine Volunteers. And it shows that he was 18 years old. He died on October 29th, 1862. And he was originally interred at the Mount Zion Cemetery in Tenlytown in the District of Columbia before his remains were removed to Arlington Cemetery. Next slide. We also have the burial registers for the National Cemetery. And fortunately, this is a huge series of bound volumes and they've all been digitized. So they're available online, both on Ancestry.com and in the Arizona online catalog. There are two specific volumes that relate to Arlington National Cemetery. There's a volume of working sheets that are alphabetical lists of individuals who were buried in the cemetery. And then there's the actual burial register. If we go to the next slide, we'll see an example of the working sheets, the volume of working sheets. There are two different versions. They're both printed forms. Sometimes the forms have headings at the top and sometimes they don't. But otherwise, they give you, there are straight forward alphabetical listings of individuals who were buried, giving their name, their rank and unit information and their grave number. And then the next slide. This is the example of the actual burial register for Arlington Cemetery. And you can see it's very, very detailed. It not only gives you the individual's name, the grave location, and again their unit information, it gives you information, if known, about their place of birth, information about the residence of the widows, if that's known, it's all recorded. The cause of death and then the date of death and burial and so forth. And so you can see here that the water department took very seriously the notion of capturing accurate information about these individuals once they took on the responsibility of formally documenting the deaths that were occurring during the war. Next slide. Okay, so I did say that the information about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a little bit limited downtown, but we do have one important series of records that needs to be highlighted. And these are actually located in record group 66, the records of the commission of fine arts. In their project files in entry 17, these are case files that are for projects that were considered by the commission. And again, it includes a lot of different administrative records, memorandums, correspondence, newspaper clippings and so forth, reports and other publications, and a lot of different types of special media, including maps, drawings, blueprints and photographs and so forth. There are 10 boxes that relate specifically to Arlington National Cemetery projects that were undertaken or overseen by the commission. And they cover a variety of different topics from landscaping and tree pruning and so forth, but there is a specific box that relates to the bust of the Unknown Soldier that was placed in the amphitheater, and also three boxes of material relating specifically to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which mainly includes correspondence dating from about 1920 to 1946, and includes a lot of letters going back and forth between the president of the commission, the architects who worked on these projects, and the quartermaster department. Next slide. So here's just some random examples of some of the correspondence that you might be able to find. The first document is actually a file copy of the joint resolution, the text of the joint resolution that was passed by Congress approving the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with some handwritten notations and pencil on the bottom. If you actually want to see the actual legislation relating to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, that's also available downtown at the Center for Legislative Archives. The document in the center is a letter from Hamilton Fish, Congressman to the architect who was working on the project. Hamilton Fish will learn later was responsible for initiating the project to create the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Congress. And then the third document is just the first page of an official memorandum adopted by the Commission of Fine Arts in approving the whole project for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Next slide. And finally we have some special media records as I mentioned before, these are photographs of the proposed bust of the Unknown Soldier that was to be placed in the amphitheater along with a cover letter from the Secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts to a sculptor in New York asking him to review the proposed sculptures to see if they'd be appropriate for placement in the theater. Next slide. And those are the records that I have available to highlight at Archives One. Again, if anybody wants to know any more specific information about these records or anything else, you can always contact the reference staff at Archives One at our email address, archivesonereferenceatnara.gov. And with that, I will turn it back to Allison. Thank you, John, for that wonderful presentation. Next up we have Lauren Theodore and Eric Van Slander. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for having us here today. It's a great honor for my colleague Lauren and me to be given the opportunity to discuss the textual holdings of the National Archives at College Park that pertain to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There are thousands of pages of textual records at the National Archives at College Park, also known as Archives Two, pertaining to this topic. These records span from the inception of the tomb in December 1920 to the internment of the remains of the World War Two and Korean War Unknowns on Memorial Day, 1958. The textual holdings of Archives Two do not include records relating to the Vietnam War Unknown, which the Archivist spoke about in the introduction. Given time constraints, our presentation today will focus only on the Archives Two textual records that allow us to weave together the story of the World War One Unknown Soldier. Next slide, please. The records that Lauren and I have the privilege of sharing with you today only scratch the surface and are just a small sampling of our extensive textual holdings that pertain to the World War One Unknown Soldier. Our presentation will be divided into two parts. In my part, I will highlight records relating to the selection of the Unknown Soldier, the transportation of his remains from Europe and the opening of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 21, 1921, Armistice Day. In her part, Lauren will share records pertaining to inquiries from the public about the Unknown Soldier, the design, construction and completion of the tomb in its sarcophagus, as well as the decision to place guards at the tomb in 1926. The records in our presentation today are held in Record Group 407 records of the Adage Generals Office, which is listed on the screen, Record Group 117, records of the American Battle Monuments Commission and Record Group 92, records of the Office of the Quartermaster General. And the series we drew upon are listed on your screen. Next slide, please. On December 21, 1920, New York Congressman and World War One veteran, Hamilton Fish, Jr. proposed legislation spelled out in joint resolution 426, which allowed for the, quote, retrieval and return of an unknown American soldier from France for burial at Arlington National Cemetery and to represent all of those soldiers falling in World War One. That's the end of the quote. A scan of that resolution can be seen in the center of the slide. As you can see in the document on the left of the slide, on February 3, 1921, Secretary of War Newton J. Baker delegated to the Quartermaster Corps the duty of selecting the unknown soldier. In turn, the Quartermaster Corps directed the American Graves Registration Services in Europe to determine which remains might be considered for selection as the unknown American soldier. It was concluded that to properly exhum, hold ceremonies for, and transfer the remains of the selected unknown soldier back to the United States, a total of 7,500 soldiers and Marines, plus 500 additional service members serving in France, and more than $187,000 would be required. As you can see in the document on the right of the screen, on January 31, on January 31, 1921, Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, wrote to the Secretary of War, suggesting that the USS Olympia, which was the flagship of Commodore George Dewey at the Battle of Manila during the Spanish-American War, carry the remains of the unknown soldier back to the United States. Next slide, please. As is indicated in the scans that appear on this slide, in October 1921, four bodies identified as unnamed US military personnel were exhumed from four different American cemeteries in France. The determination that they were, in fact, American soldiers, was based upon their place of death, original birth, and their uniforms. Every measure was taken to ensure that absolutely no identification of those selected could ever be made. Likewise, no special markings or items were placed on their caskets. On October 23, 1921, the four caskets arrived at the City Hall of Chalons, France, where town officials and members of the Army Quartermaster Corps had prepared the selection ceremony. At 10 a.m. the following morning, Edward Younger, who was a sergeant serving with American forces in Germany, chosen due to his outstanding performance during World War I, was given the honor of making the final selection. During the selection ceremony, Sergeant Younger stood in front of the four caskets, circled them three times, and placed a spray of white roses on the third casket from the left. He then faced the casket at attention and saluted, marking his final decision as to which one held the remains of the American unknown soldier. Our colleague Eric Kilgore will discuss at length the National Archives record at St. Louis records pertaining to Sergeant Younger. Next slide, please. As is shown in the document on the left of this slide, the remains of the American unknown soldier lay in state in a casket, draped in the stars and stripes for several Iowa hours, under an honor guard of French and American soldiers in the Hotel de Ville, where the local population was provided with the opportunity to pay their final respects. Our records include several small blueprints, which you can see on the right side of this slide. They were only about the size of an index card. And these blueprints show the order of events of the selection ceremony, including where the four caskets were located, where the selected remains were transferred into the official casket, where they lay in state for public viewing, and finally, the path that the remains followed out of the hotel. Next slide, please. Following a simple but dignified ceremony held by the city of Chalons, the remains of the unknown soldier were escorted by an honor guard to the railroad station, where a special funeral train awaited to transport them to the port city of Lahav. As is shown in the scan on the left, once it arrived in Lahav, the casket moved through the city on a horse drawn case on, in a solemn procession to the pier, where they were transferred to a detail of American soldiers who carried it aboard the Olympia, which awaited with her flags at half-mask, and a flower decked stern to return the unknown soldier to his homeland. The documents on this slide include special orders associated with the selection of the American soldiers who were detailed to serve on the honor guard that accompanied the remains of the unknown soldier from Chalons to Lahav. Next slide, please. The Olympia reached the Washington Navy Yard on November 9th, 1921, promptly at 4 p.m. At which point, the flag-drib casket holding the unknown soldier was delivered by the Navy to the Army, represented by the commanding general of the Military District of Washington, and then moved via horse drawn case on to the U.S. Capitol Building. It was escorted by an honor guard who marched to the beat of soft drums played by a U.S. Army band from nearby Fort Mayer, Virginia. The remains of the unknown soldier lay in state in the rotunda of the Capitol Building under a combined honor guard composed of U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines throughout the night and into the next day, when thousands of individuals, including the public, government officials, and foreign diplomats paid their respects. The documents on this slide include the basic plan for the viewing at the Capitol Rotunda, and also call for a two-minute period of national silence and reflection the following day at noon. Next slide, please. On the morning of November 11th, 1921, at promptly 8.30, the casket containing the remains of the unknown soldier was removed from the Capitol Building and transferred to a case on which was used to carry it to the Arlington National Cemetery under military escort. In the solemn procession to Arlington were President Warren G. Harding, Vice President Calvin Coolidge, Chief Justice of the United States and former President William Howard Taft, and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. Also included in the procession to Arlington were decorated World War I veterans, state officials, and representatives of patriotic organizations such as the American Legion, who were invited to walk behind the casket as thousands of spectators lined the streets of Washington along the route to pay their respects. A simple but dignified funeral ceremony befitting a war hero, which included an address by President Harding, who conferred upon the unknown soldier, the Medal of Honor, RMOH, and the Distinguished Service Cross, DSC, was conducted at the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. The documents on this slide include an outline of the ceremony, a copy of House Resolution 7255, which authorized Harding to award the MOH and DSC medals to the unknown soldier. Next slide, please. As is indicated on this slide, following the opening ceremony of the tomb, special representatives of the countries who had been allied with the United States during World War I, including Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, conferred upon the unknown soldier the highest military decorations of their respective nations. These decorations included the Qua de Guerre, the Victoria Cross, and the gold medal for bravery. At this point, I will turn the presentation over to my colleague Lauren. And next slide, please. Thank you, Eric. Hello, everyone. So after the ceremony, the public quickly became curious about how the body of the unknown was chosen, and it seemed that rumors became more abundant than the truth. Rumors such as a blind veteran who hit the casket with a cane to choose it, and different people being credited with the selection we're running about. People wanted details of how the selection process from the cemeteries, who chose the bodies, and how the unknown died, information on the ceremony, as well as any distinguishing marks and other identifiable information on the unknown, thus really negating the entire point of the process. The War Department wrote a standard response to send out these inquiries in which they detailed the selection process, the ceremony, and other facts that would not lead to the identification of the unknown. The letter reads in part, the body of an unknown soldier was exhumed from the following American cemeteries, and it lists the cemeteries we listed in the slide. These four bodies had previously been designated as the most careful study of all records pertaining to the unknown in each ceremony has been made. The body was that of an American soldier evinced by uniform and equipment, as well as original burial place. The cause of death was a parent from a gunshot wound on the body, and there was absolutely no tangible evidence nor possible clue as to identity, end quote. Next slide please. After the internment ceremony, the issue of selecting a suitable monument to complete the tomb, which was then just a simple white marble slab, was raised. On July 3rd, 1926, Congress authorized the completion of the tomb in the funds of $50,000 therefore, under resolution 9843. The act designated that the design should be subject to the approval of the Arlington Cemetery Commission, American Battle Monuments Commission, and the Fine Arts Commission. The Secretary of War prepared the program for the completion of the tomb and invited U.S. architects to submit designs. Next slide please. 74 designs were submitted from architectural and design firms across the country. The jury of award committee narrowed the pull down to five submissions, and the four finalists not chosen are seen here. The five finalists then submitted the scale models of their designs, and the jury took into consideration the surroundings of the tomb, the amphitheater which serves as a background, and the final effect the designs would have on the area. Next slide please. The winning design was created by Mr. Thomas H. Jones Sculptor and Mr. Lorimer Rich, architect of New York City. The design is in the form of a sarcophagus, which was the most appropriate for the purpose it serves. The total height from the Memorial Amphitheater Plaza is 8 feet 2 inches. It is 8 feet at its base and 6 feet 8 inches at the top. The panel on the front has carved upon the marble a composition of three figures commemorating the spirit of the allies of the war. In the center stands a victory with her palm branch in hand to reward the devotion and sacrifice of the unknown and all fallen soldiers. On the other side a male figure symbolizes valor and on the other side stands peace. Each panel is carved with an inverted wreath and on the back appears the inscription, here rests an honor, glory, an American soldier known but to God. The marble is Yule Colorado marble the same as the Lincoln Memorial and weighs over 50 tons. It would take over 10 years for the tomb to be built and set upon its spot in Arlington. Back in 1921 the unknown was interred. Members of the public, the military, and Congress noticed that the atmosphere around the tomb was less than ideal and appropriate for the weight of its symbolism. At the time the cemetery and amphitheater had three civilian guards to watch the grounds but there were no guardsmen immediately around the tomb so the public could go right up to the site, climb on it, have picnics around it, and so forth. Another complaint stated that boys would often shoot items off the top of the tomb with BB guns. One letter from Major Fletcher Jr. noticed that in France, England, and Italy were similar tombs lay. The public showed attitudes of deep respect and were places of worship unlike the atmosphere created by some of the public at the tomb in Arlington. Next slide please. Our collection actually has a fair number of handwritten letters from members of the public concerned about the attitudes and actions of those who visited the tomb. One Mabel Brown wrote the following letter seen here after paying her respects at the Arlington tomb. She had also visited tombs of unknowns in other countries and compared the atmosphere to that in Arlington. She saw photographers were making profits off of taking photos of people in front of the tomb and makes a plea for protection of the area. She knows that there seemed to be more thought put into directing cars around the amphitheater than there was for how the tomb would be guarded against irreverence. Next slide please. In response to the pleas of the public, state representatives, and the press coverage, Congress took action to protect the tomb. In March 1926, Congress passed joint resolution 185, which provided funds for the establishment and functioning of the guard to watch over the unknown. The resolution states, quote, whereas the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington is America's shrine emblematic of our heroic dead who gave their lives for their country during the world war. And whereas among the thousands of persons constantly visiting the shrine, there are some who failed to conduct themselves with the proper reverence do it. Now therefore be it resolved that the War Department shall maintain a special guard armed and equipped as for field service during the world war whose duty it shall be to guard the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington from sunrise to sunset, end quote. Although since 1937, the tomb hasn't guarded 24 hours a day despite the cemetery being closed at night. Next slide please. The tomb was completed in April 1932 and though we found some discussion and some correspondence of a dedication ceremony being held on May 30th, 1932, it seems only a simple unveiling of the sarcophagus was conducted. Major General King wrote, quote, the completion of the tomb as outlined above marks a definite enlargement of the area and in the opinion of this division presents an opportunity to recall the memory of the nation, the sacrifices made by the soldiers thereof in the world war and can serve to assist in maintaining the patriotism and national spirit of the American people, end quote. The tomb and the unknown are representatives of all those individuals who fought and sacrificed for their country. The tomb was a place of mourning for all mothers, fathers and family members who never found out what happened to those they lost and became a place where they could imagine the unknown was their beloved soldier. The tomb of the unknown is now a place of reverence and remembrance for all fallen U.S. soldiers. Next slide please. We thank you for your time today and we hope our presentation shed light on how the tomb of the unknown came to fruition. We know some of the documents are a little difficult to read on the presentation screen. Some of it's the ink has faded so it doesn't come out as well and we do have a pretty substantial amount of records on the subject in the College Park collection. If you have any questions about the records or like more information on the topic Eric and I have our emails listed here as well as the main A2 College Park textual reference inquiry email address. We also hope somebody soon we can also help you in person at the College Park research rooms because some of these really do look very much better in person. Thank you again. Great thank you so much Eric and Lauren. For our third and final presentation today we are going to pass it over to Eric Kilgore. Go ahead Eric. Hey good afternoon again my name is Eric Kilgore. I am an archive specialist from the National Archives at St. Louis. A big thank you to the staff at Arlington National Cemetery for the opportunity to participate in this commemoration. I'm very excited to be able to share some examples of records in our holdings that are directly related to the tomb of the unknown soldier. Next slide please. To tell you a little bit about us the National Archives at St. Louis is home to a vast collection of personal data series records. It's the largest collection of federal records outside of the Washington DC Maryland area. We house over 100 million personnel files of the men and women who have served our nation in both civilian and military capacities. These records were generated by the federal government or military branches to document aspects of service dating back to the late 1800s. These include official military personnel files or what we refer to as OMPFs, official civilian personnel files, selective service records, records of trial by courts martial, individual deceased personnel files, burial of case files just to name a few. The National Archives at St. Louis provides public access to these records for a variety of purposes including genealogy, historical research, and benefits for living veterans and their families. National Archives at St. Louis is co-located with the National Personal Records Center at One Archives Drive just north of downtown St. Louis. Our current facility was completed in 2011. However, our former location at 9700 Page Avenue served as the central repository for military records known as the Military Personnel Records Center since 1953 when it was built through a joint venture between the service branches to house the enormous amount of military personnel files generated by World War I, World War II, and Korea. Next slide please. Many in the research community are aware of the catastrophic fire that ravaged the Military Personnel Records Center in July of 1973. The loss of records and information contained therein was staggering and the effects are still being felt today. While rumors have circulated over the years that all of the records from World War I through Korea were lost, there were millions of records that were recovered or partially damaged. The official military personnel file of one of our subjects that we'll discuss today was damaged but survived the fire allowing us to pay tribute to his service and contribution to the tomb of the unknown soldier. Next slide please. Today we will examine documents from the official military personnel files of two men who are inextricably linked to the tomb of the unknown soldier, one who selected the first unknown and another that will hopefully be the last. Sergeant Edward F. Younger, a decorated veteran of World War I who was given the solemn honor of choosing the remains of an unknown soldier to be enshrined at Arlington and a simple ceremony in a war-torn chapel in Sean, Samar. And Lieutenant Michael J. Blasey who was shot down while on a combat mission over Vietnam. Blasey's remains were initially classified as unidentifiable and they were chosen as the unknown for the Vietnam conflict. However, through the use of DNA technology in the 1990s, Blasey's remains were positively identified providing conclusive answers to a most difficult case which raised questions about the selection process of the unknowns. Next slide please. The first of these, Sergeant Edward Younger, was born in 1898 and in 1917 enlisted to fight in World War I at Jefferson Barracks just south of St. Louis on the bluffs above the Mississippi River. He participated in the battles of Chateau Thierry, San Mio, the Somme Offensive, and Musargon Offensive being wounded twice. After the armistice, Younger re-enlisted and spent time on occupation duty in Europe. Next slide please. As you will see, the documents detailing Younger's service are photocopies of the original. I will apologize in advance for the quality of some of these documents. Younger's official military personnel file was damaged in the 1973 fire and to ensure its preservation, photocopies were made to prevent further damage from continued handling. You'll notice dark areas on some of the edges of the documents work which are actually burn damage. In time, a high resolution version of Younger's record will be uploaded to the National Archives catalog for free public access. Unfortunately, the pandemic has severely impacted this aspect of our work. This particular document is a condensed statement of military service that provides an overview of Younger's time in the Army, including his enlistment dates, awards, and decorations, and his date of death. It was likely produced to answer one of many inquiries about Younger from the news media and others as commemorative dates passed throughout the years. On July 2nd, 1918, Younger was severely wounded by machine gun fire. The document on the left is the Western Union Telegram dated July 18th addressed to Younger's stepmother, Ms. Anna Havel, and forming her of his injuries. The center document is a letter from Ms. Havel asking the Adjutant General's office for more information. And on the right is the Adjutant General's response informing her that at the time there was no further information available and to write to his command directly. And you can notice that the both the documents on the left and right have cinch marks around the edges. Next slide please. The document on that you see on the left is a notification of Younger's return to roster. This was after being discharged from the hospital from those wounds and explains that he was hospitalized from July 2nd through August 3rd by a reason of GSW that's gunshot wound and it states multiple head, neck, and left arm incurred in action. Chateau Thierry, July 2nd, 1918. The second document is another letter to Ms. Havel dated May 3rd, 1919, notifying her that he had once again been wounded on October 3rd, 1918. So it took a little while for her to get that notice but it did inform her not to be alarmed that since if it had been serious she would have been notified via telegram. Next slide please. The document on the left is Younger's reenlistment dated October 29th, 1919. However, in February of 1921 the Army realized that Sergeant Younger owed them a balance of roughly 15 francs from December 1918 when he and the boys damaged and looted a box card. This should have been collected upon his reenlistment but it was overlooked and then he would ask why it took the Army so long to figure this out and we will find that out on the next slide. And here's why. If you take notice of the document on the left labeled incorrect classification sheet this is a routing slip for the documentation detailing the looted box car and resulting deduction that should have been taken from Younger's pay. However, the documents were mistakenly filed in the record of an Edward P. Younger who was probably not thrilled about being charged for shenanigans he did not participate in. Next slide please. In March of 1933 Sergeant Younger wrote a letter to the quartermaster general's office inquiring about his Purple Heart medals stating if you will please send it to me I will give you all the correct answers and data about myself and Army records. That office quickly replied and directed that the medals be engraved and delivered to Sergeant Younger at his address listed at 2005 Bingham Street in Chicago, Illinois. Quick side note for those interested whenever I find a subject's address in our records I often perform a Google search to see if the house or apartment is still standing. In this case the address that he has listed was built in 1887 so it is indeed the house where Younger once resided. I just find it fascinating to be able to connect information and documents to the physical aspects of the purposes past to see where you know they lived. Next slide please. In the years following the commemoration of Armistice Day the tomb of the unknown soldier and the tomb of the unknown soldier was not uncommon for media and other organizations to write the Army for information about Younger or to ask for his participation in those ceremonies. These documents are correspondence between the American Legion and the Army asking to contact Younger so we can provide a written account of his experience in choosing the unknown for a July 4th 1939 unveiling of a tablet commemorating the event at Shaw and Zumaan. The Army forwarded the request to Younger per the letter on the right. Next slide please. Since there was no further communication from Younger documented in his official person military personnel file regarding his remarks for that commemoration the National Archives wouldn't have anything further on the matter. However in September of 1986 a Donald Conyon wrote a letter and enclosed a photocopy of a typewritten first-person account that had been in the custody of a retired school teacher in her 90s from Pennsylvania. It bore the signature of a sergeant Ed F. Younger and Mr. Conyon was trying to verify its authenticity by asking for a signature sample from his record. A sample of Younger's signature was provided and while there's nothing in Younger's record to verify the document's authenticity it does mirror remarks provided by Younger for that ceremony. Next slide please. This is the photocopy of the document provided by Mr. Conyon which bears edits and revisions throughout his three pages. There are handwritten notes along the bottom containing the names of places where Younger fought along with phonetic pronunciations. While the entire count is quite poignant I will read the closing since the document may be hard to read on screen. It sums up the symbolism of the tomb nicely. It reads, that tomb is now a shrine of American patriotism. Like many who were in the thick of the fighting I helped bury the bodies of hundreds of my buddies under fire. Many of them could not be identified. Could the hero I chose have been one of these? I cannot know but somehow I hope it was. Next slide please. Just a few short years later Sergeant Younger passed away from a heart attack at 44 years of age. The document above is a request for verification of military service and honorable discharge for burial. Today Younger rests in section 18 at Arlington National Cemetery just a short walk from the tomb of the unknown soldier. Next slide please. Our second and final individual that we will highlight is First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blasey. As mentioned at the start of the presentation Blasey was killed in action during a combat mission in Vietnam when the A-37 close support aircraft he was piloting was shot down on a bombing run near On Lock. Blasey's record provides a unique insight into his military service but also the process of selecting an unknown. More importantly it highlights the fact that through changes in military doctrine and advances in forensic science the remains of Americans killed in battle were able to be defend identified more often than not. For the first time it was difficult for the military to designate an unknown for interment causing them to expand the criteria for selection. Today the probability of the service person being killed in action and the remains being unidentifiable is almost non-existent. Lieutenant Blasey's record has over 1,000 pages and is available in its entirety on the National Archives catalog. I would invite anybody that's interested to give it a closer look. This overview will examine those documents related to Blasey's service, interment, and subsequent identification. Next slide please. Blasey was born on April 4th, 1948 in St. Louis. The document on the left is a statement of personal history which he filled out upon applying to the United States Air Force Academy after graduating from St. Louis University High School in 1966. A few years later we have this document on the right which is an order for Blasey and the others in the class of 1970 to report for pilot training in May of 1969. Next slide please. Shortly after Blasey completed flight training and received his commission order in April of 1970 the document in the center is the order of commission which designates the cadets as second lieutenants in the United States Air Force and the document on the right is Blasey's signed oath of office dated June 3rd 1970. Next slide please. Blasey continued with his training as a pilot into 1972 at which time he requested overseas duty specifically stating Southeast Asia. He said I would like to fly a fighter or fighter interceptor anywhere preferably overseas. He then listed his aircraft in order of preference. After fighters he requested a number of aircraft including the OV-10 and T-37 which are smaller low level aircraft that directly support troops on the ground. He went on to state again I would prefer overseas assignment before listing states outside base preferences. Next slide please. Blasey was assigned to the 8th Special Operations Squadron and left for Vietnam in on January 10th 1972. The document on the left is his written order to report to his unit and the one on the right is an official or officer military record card providing an overview of Blasey's military service. Next slide please. Just a few short months after arriving Vietnam while supporting troops in contact on the ground Blasey's A-37 was shot down. His wingman saw no parachute and the plane exploded on impact. Due to the crash site being overrun with communist vietnamese forces rescue and recovery efforts were impossible at the time. Next slide please. The document that you see on the left is the type draft for the telegram his parents were to receive and forming them of his death with specific instructions to deliver and not to call. The telegram goes on to tell the Blasey family that a letter from Michael's commander will follow soon and more details will come from the mortuary branch as they became available about his remains. The document on the right is a letter from Blasey's commander Colonel Charles Gunn. He offered the family details about Blasey's mission and his loss. He told them at the time recovery was impossible due to enemy troops in the area but he went on to say that Mike's galleon tree on this mission was very typical of the outstanding devotion he has demonstrated these last three and a half months and that he was proud to be associated with Mike. Next slide please. Months later in October of 1972 the Army's Joint Personnel Recovery Center was notified that a reconnaissance patrol had recovered the remains of an American at coordinates near where Blasey had been shot down. Also recovered were dog tags and an ID card identifying the individual as Lieutenant Michael Blasey United States Air Force. The map in the center shows the grid coordinates marking the location of the remains. The document on the right is a summary of incident report outlining Blasey's aircraft being shot down and the remains being recovered and sent to the U.S. mortuary at Tonsonute. However it's noted that Blasey's dog tags and ID card were not received with the remains. Next slide please. The remains received at Tonsonute were incomplete exacerbating matters. The notice on the right is a narrative taken from the Joint Task Force for full accounting outlining the details surrounding the remains. It adds that the recovered along with the remains were an aircraft ejection seat and Blasey's military ID card. It concludes however that they were insufficient for a positive identification. The remains that were thought to be those of Lieutenant Blasey were designated X-26 by the Joint Task Force for full accounting and they remained in Hawaii at their facility in hopes that further evidence may turn up and provide definitive proof as to their identity. Next slide please. The years past and by 1981 there was mounting pressure to designate an unknown service member to be interred at the tomb of the unknown soldier representing the Vietnam conflict. This letter dated April 27th outlines the criteria used for past conflicts for selecting the remains of an unknown. It states that the remains that were currently unidentified at the laboratory in Hawaii do not meet the previously established criteria and therefore should not be considered for selection. Some of those criteria were that the remains must be mostly complete generally considered to be 80% and their personal effects must have no identifying clue which may be later used to establish identity. It goes on to say that unidentified remains are still being repatriated from previous conflicts so the possibility of finding more unidentified remains from Vietnam is high and future candidates may be better suited for the selection criteria. The Air Force's official position was that the original criteria be followed and not adapted to meet present needs. As for the remains designated X-26 there was reasonable cause to believe that they were in fact those of Lieutenant Blasey there was just no way to prove it yet. On Memorial Day 1984 the remains were interred into the tomb of the unknown. Next slide please. Throughout the years since Blasey was declared killed in action in Vietnam the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting provided the Blasey family periodic updates on their case as their successor agency DPAA the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency still does today. As science evolved and DNA technology became available Blasey's family began a campaign to have the remains tested and finally provide answers regarding the remains designated as X-26 now interred in the tomb of the unknown soldier. Next slide please. Mounting political pressure on behalf of the family caused the Department of Defense to reopen the case and examine the available information regarding the remains of X-26. This letter to Lieutenant Blasey's mother dated December 11th 1995 was informing her to that effect and that the Air Force would keep them informed if any new information came to light. Next slide please. Ongoing pressure from the Blasey family their congressmen and senators finally prompted the disinterment of the remains from the Vietnam sarcophagus at Arlington. DNA samples provided by the Blasey family were tested against samples from the six separate pieces of remains. Those remains designated as X-26 and later the Vietnam unknown were now conclusively identified as Lieutenant Michael J. Blasey. In 1998 Lieutenant Blasey's remains were brought home to St. Louis and interred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. It's rather fitting that Edward Younger who chose the first unknown began his journey on the very grounds in which the man who hopefully will be the last unknown now rests. Next slide please. That concludes my presentation. Thank you so much for watching and a big thanks to the folks at Arlington for inviting us to participate in this year's commemoration and it's a big honor. And for more information on records in the custody of the National Archives at St. Louis be sure to visit us online at www.archives.gov forward slash st-luis. Thank you Eric so much for that meaningful presentation and I want to thank all of our panelists. It was so exciting to see these records that I have poured over for the past two years being shown to the public so thank you all and I want to encourage the audience if you're interested in learning more about these records follow the links that the panelists gave you and check out our forthcoming official history of the tomb. We actually relied heavily on all of these records and we analyze them in great detail. So now we're going to do a couple questions from me to our expert archivists and then a few questions from our audience so please send those questions in via YouTube. First to our panelists. What role do archival records play in commemorations like the tomb centennial? In other words how can archival records help us to commemorate the past and you can just raise your hand if you want and then go ahead and speak. Okay Eric Kilgore um for me personally I mean this I think this is why a lot of us do what we do um you know these documents are that tangible aspect of history that you know in many cases we can go to the archives and we can touch we can hold them um they're a direct link to the past and the events that happened so um you know for me that's always been one of the big draws to history and what we do um just to be able to reach back in time and physically interact with the the people and the documents that made these things possible and made us who we are. I agree completely would anybody else like to reflect on that question? Lauren um same as uh Eric said there there is that time gap um that we're dealing with there but then also going through the records I think uh Eric Van Slander and I saw so much is happening behind closed doors um that you don't really know about you don't know the we found so much correspondence between representatives fighting for certain aspects of the ceremonies and different parts of the sarcophagus and everything um you don't see that day to day so it's good to know there there are major conversations happening behind closed doors where no one can really see to have those come to light really shows how things fell into place the way they did. That's a great point anybody else Eric Van Slander? Yes along the lines with what Lauren was saying I think the archival records particularly the ones we drew upon and as we noted there are lots of them that we didn't really get to give context to sort of the official histories that were done later about the ceremonies and such and and see the back and forth and particularly I think for scholars writing 100 years after the fact these documents can be quite interesting um and provide context um and as Eric in St. Louis was saying you know it's really cool to be able to literally touch the physical things that people 100 years ago were writing and it's there's something about that sort of psychic connection that you have when you're using the official documentation. I agree completely I feel like I know the people in these records at this point uh John do you want to add anything? Actually I I can only really just second everything that everyone said uh as far as the records concerned they're the the closest link that we have to these events that were you know that that happened in the past and that we're studying so yeah. Oh thank you so I'm going to do one more question from me before I turn to our audience questions and this is a question I'm hoping is really going to help our audience what is your favorite piece of advice to give researchers as they approach their projects at the National Archives? All right Lauren start us off. There's a bunch we can say I think I think the I'm sure we all have our different ways of tackling projects coming in from researchers but especially if you're just starting out I would say talk to someone first before really diving in because you might be looking in the wrong place like you said Alison you they think the cemetery has a lot of the documents and so they're going to focus all their energy over there and they don't realize how much another facility may have so I think talking to the people who uh maybe we don't know everything I'm not saying we know where everything is far from it but to to get a general roadmap um I think for where documents physically are is probably one of the the better ways to make a first step. Great answer um here Vince Lander. Okay um along the lines what Lauren was saying yes definitely please reach out to us first we can definitely help you even before coming to navigate our finding aids to a certain extent and also um well the the trade term used in library science is sort of negotiating your question and trying to figure out exactly the kind of records you might be looking for and likewise um you know since delving into original records can be a bit daunting particularly given the volume and in some cases the lack of description that we have you know doing the secondary source research first is very important knowing the subject matter you know makes it much more meaningful once you dive into the records themselves so um and what some people like to do is to read particularly well-sighted reference well-sighted scholarly works backwards looking at the sources that were already used um that can be very helpful. I agree. All right John. Yeah I would also to add to all that I would also tell folks to you know spread a wide net because you you really do never know where a source may be located and it may be down an avenue that you haven't considered or have overlooked. I've had plenty of especially when you're doing research for family history and that type of thing which I've helped folks a lot uh I've seen people miss out on records that are sitting right in front of them because oh they say they're oh my family never spelled their name that way so it can't be them and it turns out that it is um so yeah be be very open and receptive. That's a great point so an example are the records from RG 117 from the American Battle Monuments Commission. It seems counterintuitive that the ABMC founded in 1923 would have key records about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier but in fact those have been so important to our work. Anybody else want to comment before I take an audience question? Okay so I'm going to start with an audience question that we have here and that question was what happened to the other three sets of unidentified American remains that were taken and used in that selection ceremony for the World War I unknown and I can answer this if you all need or please go ahead to our panelists. I didn't find anything in the records actually I just I don't know if Eric ran across on me so if you have information that'd be great. Eric do you want to go? Um actually we I did find actually it was not amongst our records that we cited but a secondary source done by I believe it was the army mentioning that the three remains that were not chosen were buried appropriately in France and the cemetery escapes me at this point but certainly Allison you might know. Sure and I can't remember which NARA record I founded in but it was definitely in a NARA record those three unidentified remains were buried in the Musargon American Cemetery in France so if you are interested in learning more about this you'll hear about our upcoming program with the ABMC where we'll go into that in more depth and then I think we're asking a couple questions from the audience about the orders um related to the tomb guards and whether those orders have changed recently in what kind of NARA records are held related to the orders used by the tomb guards so is that a question that anybody has seen in their research? Eric go ahead. So these would be contemporary orders meaning as of last week? The question was not clear about the date. Okay yeah if they were very recent records meaning you know within the last 30 years the chances of them being accession to the archives are quite slim normally it takes a number of years for records to come to us so I think the records that we would have relating to the soldiers guarding the tomb would only go up probably until maybe the 1970s at the latest but we would this would be a perfect example of a question where please write in and let us do some searching for you. Oh thank you that's a really interesting question so panelists I'm going to wrap it up now I want to thank you all for your wonderful presentations we appreciate all of the time you put into this event and I hope that I will be at the research room soon bothering you with endless questions about the records and I know that I speak for the audience when I say that your remarks were truly fascinating and it was a treat to hear from you all thank you also to our audience today for your time your attention and your questions I hope you will all join us for some of our upcoming events for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Centennial if you are able to visit Arlington National Cemetery we encourage you to view our two exhibits about the tomb one is located at the welcome center and the other is at the Memorial Amphitheater display room which is just steps above the tomb stay tuned to our website and our social media to learn about our upcoming publications view historical content find our educational module about the tomb and much more and this slide has all the information you need about how to stay up to date with what is happening our next virtual public event which I referenced will take place on Friday October 22nd at 1 p.m. Eastern time it is being hosted by the National World War One Museum and Memorial and it is a collaboration with the American Battle Monuments Commission it is a lunch and learn webinar where we will commemorate the centennial of the selection of the World War One unknown and really get into those details of what happened of course using a lot of NARA resources you can learn more and register for this free program at the link on the slide which takes you to the World War One Museum's website the tomb centennial will culminate during the week of Veterans Day on November 9th and 10th if the pandemic allows we will be organizing a flower ceremony and this is when members of the public will actually be able to walk on the tomb plaza and place a flower on the tomb this is a very rare opportunity to come face to face with the tomb and honor the unknowns where they lie buried on Veterans Day there will be a ceremonial procession through the cemetery to the tomb that is meant to evoke elements of the one that transported the World War One unknown to Memorial amphitheater in 1921 the annual National Veterans Day observance will take place and it will include special features to mark the tomb centennial visit our website for up-to-date information about these events and how to participate on behalf of Arlington National Cemetery thank you to the National Archives and to you our audience for helping us to commemorate the tomb centennial through this very meaningful webinar today