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There are more than 30 group burials at Arlington National
Cemetery ranging in size from two to 250 veterans. There are 2,111 Civil
War Unknowns buried together in section 26.
However, it is important not to confuse a group burial
with that of an Unknown. In a group burial, the individuals are known,
but because of the circumstances of their deaths, they are individually
unidentifiable. When this occurs, the Department of Defense directs
that all remains be interred together and a headstone be erected with
each person's name and other pertinent data engraved upon it.
The funeral is closely coordinated with the
respective service and the next of kin of the deceased. Factors such
as location, date and time, and general logistics are arranged according
to the wishes of the next of kin.
The largest group burial at Arlington National Cemetery
took place on June 15, 1949, when 250 men from the USS
Serpens were interred in 52 caskets. These men were killed
on the night of Jan. 29, 1945, when the U.S. Coast Guard ammunition
ship exploded and sank at Laguna Beach, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.
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There were 30 grave sites set aside for the burials,
arranged in five rows of six graves each. The 52 caskets were
buried in 28 graves. Two grave sites in the center of the block
of 30 were reserved for the octagonal memorial on which all names
were inscribed.
In front of the Memorial Amphitheater stands another
memorial dedicated to 18 sailors who died aboard the 76,000-ton
aircraft carrier, USS Forrestal. On July 29, 1967, while
off the coast of Vietnam, the exhaust from a jet accidentally
touched off a missile on another plane. The missile exploded
into a tank of high-test gasoline, and within seconds, the flight
deck was engulfed by flame. One-hundred thirty-four men died in
the accident.
In April 1980 eight men were killed during a commando
raid in an attempt to rescue 53 Americans held hostage in Teheran,
Iran. Three of these men are buried together across from
the Memorial Amphitheater. Above their grave is a large,
square headstone which reads "killed in the line of duty
- Iran."
The headstones give little detail of the disastrous
events that the deceased suffered, nevertheless, they serve as
silent sentinels to the memory of these soldiers, sailors, airmen,
Marines and Coast Guardsmen whose lives ended so tragically.
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