A Solemn Mission for a Historic Ship

摘要

Following the incredible carnage of World War I, several nations chose to honor the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice by entombing an unknown soldier from that conflict. Two years following the armistice, France and Britain buried their unknown soldiers beneath the Arc de Triomphe and under the floor of Westminster Abbey, respectively.On March 4, 1921, the U.S. Congress approved that such an honor should be bestowed on an American slain during the Great War in the plaza of a new Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.On October 24, 1921, the same day highly decorated Sgt. Edward E Younger selected the Unknown of World War I from four identical caskets at the city hall in Chalons-en-Champagne, France, USS Olympia, with Rear Adm. Lloyd H. Chandler embarked, berthed at Pier d'Escale at Le Havre.