For a long time the Arlington National Cemetery did not have a representative of the Vietnam War buried in the “Tomb of the Unknowns”. Then in the early 1980’s it did. Now it does not. Why this strange occurrence of events?

star_gazer

The loss of the most recent unknown remains was due to advanves in DNA science, the remains were identified and the family requested that they be buried elsewhere. http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/25/vietnam.tomb/ Aug 19 08, 5:40 PM

maninmidohio

In 1984 at a ceremony at Pearl Harbor a set of remains were selected to represent unknown from the Viet Nam era to go into the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington. In 1998 these remains underwent mitochondrial DNA testing and were identified as First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie. Blassie died when his A-37B Dragonfly was shot down near An Loc in what was then South Vietnam. Blassie's body was returned to his family, and on July 10 Blassie's remains finally arrived home to his family in Saint Louis, Missouri. Blassie was then reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Because of advances in DNA testing it is felt that all remains from the Viet Nam area will eventually be identified so the tomb will probably never again have an unknown from that time. The marker at Arlington was replaced with one that read, "Honoring and Keeping Faith with America's Missing Servicemen." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Blassie Aug 19 08, 5:56 PM