The Tomb of the Unknowns

June 17, 1999
Web posted at: 6:25 p.m. EDT (2225 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns that once held unidentified remains from the Vietnam War will remain empty, and the tomb will no longer represent any victim of that conflict, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Last year, the remains in the crypt representing the dead from Vietnam, which had been interred at the tomb in Arlington National Cemetery in 1984, were removed and identified as 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie.

The identification was made possible by advances in DNA technology, and Pentagon officials say scientific improvements make it likely that the remains of dead veterans from the Vietnam War will eventually all be identified.

"It is possible that the tomb will be empty (forever)," said Rudy de Leon, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The number of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines missing from the Vietnam conflict totals 2,060. The United States continues to receive new remains from the Vietnamese government as crash and burial sites are excavated.

Those remains are taken to a special laboratory in Hawaii, and identifications are being made on almost a weekly basis.

"I think that as long as there are living relatives of some of our missing men, there will always be a hope that remains that are now at the lab will be identifiable at some point," de Leon said.

The tomb also holds the remains of unknown soldiers from World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

Blassie's family asked the Pentagon to conduct DNA tests on the remains in the tomb after learning of evidence that pointed to the possibility that they were from Blassie.

He was later buried with military honors at a cemetery in St. Louis.

Last month, the Pentagon also announced that it planned to disinter the remains of 70 unidentified casualties of the Korean War, buried in Hawaii, and try to identify them using DNA tests.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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