Unsure of how to proceed, the young soldier prayed silently while he continued to pace. As if summoned by some invisible force, he homed in on one of the flag-swathed caskets. “I know this man,” he thought. His arms seemed to move of their own accord, placing the roses he held atop the coffin.
~ Excerpt from Patrick O’Donnell’s The Unknowns
I have this odd practice in public libraries. When I feel the calling, I will walk randomly through the shelves and listen for the book that is calling me. I love to walk to sections that I have not been to before. I will wait to feel the pull. A cover, a title, a picture, an interesting spine, a word, something about the book draws my attention. I open the book to a random page and begin to read… sometimes, I keep reading…. sometimes, I take it home.
On one of those escapades through the public library, I encountered The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home by Patrick O’Donnell. The black and white hardcover stood out at the end of a shelf. I flipped to the middle, and the origin story of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier came to life in vivid detail. I flipped back a few chapters, and the personal accounts of WWI brought me into the trenches to see the war from a perspective that I had not experienced. I knew of the grand scale of “the war to end all wars,” but now I was faced with the personal stories through the eyes of the pallbearers that were chosen to bring the Unknown Soldier back home to America. The personal sacrifices of these decorated war heroes and the atrocities that they witnessed became even more real.
When I’m not called to these random adventures through the public library, I’m the kind of person that usually reads from cover to cover. It’s the obsessive-compulsive personality trait lodged inside my brain. I took the book home. I went into a deeper dive into the history of WWI, the aftermath, and a nation in mourning for her fallen heroes. I reviewed other sources. I felt the calling to tell the story of this National Monument. As I told people about the story, I realized that this was a forgotten story. I prepared the story for a live event on Veterans Day 2022. There are some things that we should NEVER FORGET.
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References
- Listen to my podcast, “Never Forget”
- Check out the book, The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home by Patrick O’Donnell
