Storm Damage

As a result of severe weather on Thursday, June 19, Arlington National Cemetery suffered storm damage. Throughout the week, cemetery crews will be conducting work to clean up this damage. Click "read more" for details. 

Published on: Friday, June 20, 2025 read more ...
Important Visitor Information

In accordance with current DoD guidance, ANC has implemented increased security measures to ensure the safety and reverence of this sacred space. Please click "read more" for details. 

Published on: Wednesday, June 18, 2025 read more ...

AUTHORS

The American Battle Monuments Commission and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

By on 10/18/2021

By ABMC Staff 

The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France, administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission. (ABMC)

For one hundred years, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has represented America’s eternal dedication to honoring not just the unknowns buried there, but all unknown dead from the nation’s wars. The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) shares in Arlington National Cemetery’s mission to honor and remember unknown U.S. service members. ABMC was established in 1923 to manage the American cemeteries and monuments built in Europe to commemorate World War I. Over time, the agency’s mission has expanded to include other wars.  Today, ABMC administers, operates and maintains 26 permanent American burial grounds and 32 monuments, memorials and markers on foreign soil throughout the world, as well as four memorials in the United States. More than 90,000 missing personnel from World Wars I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War are memorialized by name on the walls of the missing at ABMC cemeteries and monuments. If the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier symbolically represents all of the missing, ABMC’s cemeteries and memorials literally represent them.

► To learn more, read ABMC’s new illustrated booklet, “ABMC and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 1921-2021.”

►  Watch our webinar with ABMC and the National WWI Museum: "Eternally Unknown: The Selection of the World War I Unknown Soldier.