Exhumation Work at Tomb Begins

Using a diamond-tip blade, workers sliced through granite slabs of the Tomb of the Unknowns, beginning exhumation of remains for possible identification of a pilot from the Vietnam War. The remains were sealed in the Arlington National Cemetery monument 14 years ago with the intention that they never be removed. But Defense Secretary William S. Cohen last week ordered the exhumation to clear up suspicions of a downed pilot’s family who believe he is buried there. A military honor guard, which normally patrols directly in front of the tomb 24 hours a day, marched instead on stairs behind crypts and the sarcophagus that contains the remains of a World War I unknown.