Interment
- May 28, 1984
The vigil at the
Rotunda lasted until noon on Memorial Day. Pallbearers, consisting of
Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipients and former prisoners of war,
carried the casket down the Capitol steps to a caisson drawn by six
matched white horses. Across Washington at Fort McNair, the Old Guard
Gun Platoon began firing a 21-gun salute at one-minute intervals.
Following the
caisson, the procession consisted of Active Duty, Reserve, National
Guard and service academies units. A cordon of honor, composed of 1,750
men and women, representing all of the military services lined both
sides of the route to Arlington National Cemetery.
When the cortege
reached the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Bacon Drive, it stopped for an
instant to receive the homage of fifty-six veterans of the war bearing
flags of all the states and territories of the United States.
Rounding the
Lincoln Memorial and crossing the Memorial Bridge, the procession then
entered Arlington National Cemetery, where President Reagan and other
dignitaries waited at the Memorial Amphitheater.
The pallbearers to
carried the casket into the Apse, and placed it upon the catafalque.
After the National Anthem and an invocation by the US Army Chief of
Chaplains of the US Army, President Reagan was introduced.
Observing that the
Unknown Soldier was symbol of all the American serviceman still missing
in Vietnam, President Reagan reminded his listeners in the Amphitheater,
across the United States, and around the world that:
"We
close no books. We put away no final memories. An end to America's
involvement in Vietnam cannot come before we've achieved the fullest
possible accounting of those missing in action."
Turing to the
Unknown Soldier, the President continued that the man (All of the women
who served in Vietnam were accounted for.) had died fighting for human
dignity and for free men everywhere and that:
"Today
we embrace him and all who served us so well in a war whose end offered
no parades, no flags, and so little thanks."
President Reagan
then placed the Medal of Honor upon a simple black stand in front
of the Unknown Soldier "for service above and beyond the call
of duty - in action with the enemy during the Vietnam era."
The Pallbearers
them carried the Unknown Soldier to his final resting place. Following a
wreath laying ceremony, the Joint Armed Forces Casket Team folded the
American flag and presented it to President Reagan, who stood in as the
next of kin.
