General Information
Secretary of
Defense Charles E. Wilson made the US Army responsible for carrying out
the program in conjunction with all of the other Armed Forces. The
Quartermaster General, Major General A. T. McNamara, was designated to
act for the Chief of Staff of the Army as coordinator of the plans and
operations at home and abroad.
Army records
indicate that it was assumed as early as 1943 that the return of the
Unknown Soldier in 1921 represented a precedent under which a World War
II Unknown Soldier would also be brought home. On 6 September 1945, a
bill providing for the return to Arlington of a World War II Unknown was
introduced in Congress by the Honorable Melvin Price of Illinois.
The measure was
favorably reported by the Military Affairs Committee without public
hearings, was passed without debate, and was approved in June 1946 as
Public Law 429, 79th Congress. It directed the Secretary of War to
return a World War II Unknown Soldier from overseas and to arrange for
his burial with appropriate ceremonies near or beside the Unknown
Soldier buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The original date
set for the internment was 30 May 1951, approximately six months before
the expiration of the statutory authority for the final disposition of
World War II dead. By that time the American Graves Registration Service
would have searched for, recovered, identified, declared unidentifiable,
or declared non-recoverable most of the dead of World War II.
Before March 1951,
five unknown soldiers were to be selected, each to represent a different
wartime Theater of Operations. The five candidates were to be assembled
at Independence Hall, Philadelphia. After a Medal of Honor recipient had
selected one of the candidates to be the World War II Unknown Soldier,
the others were to be returned overseas. The remains of the Unknown
Soldier for the Second World War, were to be brought to Washington to
lie in state at the Capitol, until the internment was accomplished on
Memorial Day.
On 10 November
1950, after the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, President Truman
approved the recommendation that the interment of the World War II
Unknown Soldier be postponed until it appeared advisable to revive the
matter.
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