From USA Today -
For the first time in 25 years, Arlington National Cemetery has marked the burial of an unknown, Salon reports.
But the reason is not that the remains were too ravaged to identify, rather that paperwork pertaining to the plot has been lost in a "bureaucratic error."
The mistake was discovered in 2003 when workers went to bury a newly deceased servicemember in grave 449 in section 68 only to find unmarked remains in the plot that was listed as vacant, Salon says.
The unidentified burial likely occurred fairly recently because section 68 is an active part of the cemetery, Salon writes.
Arlington took no action for six years, Salon says, until it began making inquiries. The cemetery recently installed a headstone marked "unknown" at the site without any special ceremony.
The last "unknown" burial was in 1984 when the remains of a Vietnam veteran was placed in the Tomb of the Unknowns, with President Reagan in attendance.
Salon quotes an Army spokesman as saying the service is investigating how to identify the remains in grave 449, but would not provide any details.
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