Prior to the Vietnam War, and for some time including it, but that’s a different story, all wars that the US has participated in have had one thing in common that is likely to not be the case again for some time to come. If you skipped past the title, you might be thinking heroes, or cowards, survivors or casualties. Something along those lines. That’s not really where I’m going though. Up to the Vietnam War, we have had a memorial for the Unknown Soldier. As this memorial has been established, it has interned one, or more soldiers who’s remains have been examined with the best techniques and tools available to the various branches of service, and while they were able to identify that the soldier was fighting for the US, they have not been able to identify the soldier by name.
Considering the amount of work that the services have gone through in an effort to make sure that cadavers are identified properly, the fact that some were never identified, and remained unidentifiable, seems strange to some people today. However our country has not always been the police state that some people consider us to be in at this point. If your grandparents are still alive, and in some cases your parents, they can probably tell you stories of many people they knew who never had a birth certificate, and some who never had a social security number or drivers license. In many cases it was never needed.
In any case, from about the Vietnam war on, it Identifying our combat casualties has been significantly more possible. DNA testing, as well as improved dental records has set things up so that it is unlikely that the US will have another Unknown Soldier memorial for our war dead in a place like Arlington.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be ‘unknown’ soldiers going forwards. Just that they won’t be combat casualties in the normal sense of the word.
David Drake’s book Redliners
starts with a premise that is a little different. The idea is that soldiers in battle are changed by their experience. That seems rather intuitive to begin with, but one of the outcomes is that soldiers who have been in battle for some time, or who are exceptionally good in battle are likely to be less then spectacular civilians post battle. The story goes on to provide a variety of solution that may be difficult to implement for us today, but I’ll leave that to the reader.
Where I am coming from is that while we very well may be able to identify who was killed in combat, many of our returning troops have great difficulty in re-integrating with society. Some never really manage the transition. For some the reason is Post Traumatic Stress, for others it may just be a case of really bad management at some level. In a best case, they receive ongoing treatment from the VA and other resources. But it’s pretty much a given that some segment of returning soldiers will not reintegrate well. Some may go on to become Soldiers of Fortune, but that’s not a given, and hardly addresses the situation.
Where I am going is that while our memorial cemeteries such as Arlington may not have an ‘unknown soldier’ for Afganistan, or the Second Gulf War, I can assure you that in the decades to come there will be paupers graves, and places around the world where soldiers who never really came back will end up. Soldiers who never really came back. Soldiers who never become known, or become known only as bums, hobos, and so on. these people are our new and modern Unknown Soldiers. And the only memorial that they will ever have is likely to be the recognition that they really were a vital part of our families and schools. Our businesses and charities are poorer for their loss, both in death and in what they became before dying.
A couple of years back I started my own tradition around Memorial day. I live in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis-St. Paul. We have the Ft. Snelling Memorial Cemetery in our area. Each Memorial day I go to Snelling and I walk down several rows of gravestones, pausing at each stone, reading the headstone and thinking about what the person interned there has done. I thank them for their good deeds and the sacrifice they made for our country. I know that they didn’t do so for me personally, but with the exception of one person that I know about, and possibly a few that I don’t know about at this time, it is unlikely that any of them have met me either. I may have met a few during my time in service, or while deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq during the first Gulf War, but I know I haven’t kept in touch with them, and I doubt many have spent much time thinking of me either. But those interned at Snelling, Arlington, and elsewhere all paid for freedoms that we enjoy, and have impacted our dreams and lives in ways we hopefully will never know about.
But while I do this at Snelling, I know that there are soldiers whom I will never be able to thank this way. I could visit every cometary in the area, and spend time considering what each person interned there did. I can make a pilgrimage to Arlington and give thanks at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But I will miss many who’s sacrifice is such that they will never be recognized except in these words and in the memories of family member who will never really understand why Joe, or Jane never could hold a job for more than a few months. Why they would drop off the map for weeks or years at a time. Or why they left, with no explanation beyond the fact that they couldn’t stay.
There will be many of thes unknown soldiers in the years to come. Remember them for they deserve better than they will ever accept for themselves.
