Author: Contract Historian
39 found
U.S. (Union) Army Capt. Isaac Hart probably never imagined that, while leading his company of Black cavalrymen during the American Civil War, his remains would be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in 2023. But that’s exactly what happened on April 27 in Section 76.
In February of 2023, Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) curator Rod Gainer needed to verify a relic from the wreck of the USS Maine. New Jersey’s Pascack Historical Society had offered to donate the artifact to ANC with limited provenance. So Gainer contacted Steve Whitaker, who has studied the famous ship and its place in history for the last eight years.
On the afternoon of March 9, 2023, the U.S. Army’s first Hispanic female Tomb Sentinel guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery for the last time. Sgt. Kamille Torres Zapata walked the 21 steps back and forth with acute precision until being relieved of duty during the changing of the guard ceremony. It was her 746th walk.
More than 300 people, most of them strangers to each other, showed up at Arlington National Cemetery on February 23, 2023, to ensure that U.S. Navy Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class (GM3) Herman Schmidt would not be buried alone.
On the night of Jan. 29, 1945, the United States Coast Guard suffered its worst tragedy when the USS Serpens, a cargo ship crewed primarily by Coast Guard members, exploded off the coast of Guadalcanal, in the British Solomon Islands, carrying ammunition and other cargo bound for U.S. bases in the Pacific. While the crew was loading depth charges into the holds, a massive explosion suddenly occurred. More than 250 men lost their lives: nearly 200 Coast Guard members, 57 members of an Army stevedore unit and a U.S. Public Health Service surgeon. Only two of those aboard survived. The cause of the explosion was never definitively determined.
On Jan. 25, 2023, under cold gray skies and sleet, two World War II U.S. Army veterans returned to Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) to commemorate the Battle of the Bulge—the last major German offensive campaign on the western front. Darryl Bush and John Landry witnessed a wreath-laying at the Battle of the Bulge Memorial before laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Neither of the men seemed bothered by the weather, explaining that it was much colder 78 years ago in Europe.
Air Force Colonel Charles “Vas” Vasiliadis, who was buried in Section 7 on January 9, 2023, left behind a strong legacy of military service that not only affected the nation, but personally affected at least two people attending his funeral: his son Douglas and granddaughter Sophia.
On December 19, 2022, the Soldiers of the Presidential Salute Battery stood before their cannons, awaiting the arrival of Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso. The Soldiers had set up three polished and gleaming 105mm howitzers at Section 37 of Arlington National Cemetery, and their two-man teams were ready to fire. Behind them stood four senior Soldiers and a captain.
Seaman Edward E. Casinger’s burial service on November 19, 2022, marked the twenty-eighth burial of a USS Oklahoma crewman at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). It also marked an eighty-year journey from the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to today. Burials of Oklahoma crewmen have a profound effect on those who make them possible, from the scientists at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to the sailors who lay them to rest.
“Honor Guard!” Capt. Andrew Borrebach bellowed to the approximately 250 members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard who lined both sides of Arlington National Cemetery’s mall leading to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “Attention!” The men and women snapped to attention, standing ramrod straight. About ten minutes later, the captain called out, “Honor Guard! At ease!” Everyone separated their legs and held their rifles away from their bodies with their right hands, while placing their left hands behind their backs.