--- title: "Sgt. Edward Younger chose America’s Unknown Soldier in 1921 by laying roses on one of four caskets" url: https://badiyaa.com/edward-younger-unknown-soldier-chalons/ published: 2026-11-12T13:23:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-12T13:23:00+00:00 section: History publisher: Badiyaa --- # Sgt. Edward Younger chose America’s Unknown Soldier in 1921 by laying roses on one of four caskets Sgt. Edward Younger picked America's Unknown Soldier on October 24, 1921, by laying roses on one of four identical caskets at Châlons, France. America’s Unknown Soldier was chosen by one man, alone in a room in France, with a handful of roses. On October 24, 1921, Sgt. Edward F. Younger stood before four identical caskets at the city hall of Châlons-sur-Marne, walked around them, and laid the flowers on one. That casket crossed the Atlantic and became the first burial at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. “I walked around the coffins three times, then suddenly I stopped,” Younger later said. “What caused me to stop, I don’t know, it was as though something had pulled me.” ## How the four were picked Congress approved the burial of an unidentified World War I serviceman on March 4, 1921, and the War Department ordered the selection on September 29. A Quartermaster Corps team then exhumed one unknown American from each of four US military cemeteries in France: Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, Somme and St. Mihiel. Each body was checked for three things, according to the Army’s own account: that the man had served with the American Expeditionary Forces, that he had died of combat wounds, and that nothing on him could reveal who he was. All four were placed in matching caskets so that the final choice would be truly random. ## Why Younger Younger, a Chicago man who had enlisted in February 1917, fought at Château-Thierry, St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne. He was wounded twice and received the Distinguished Service Cross for valor. In 1921 he was a sergeant with the 50th Infantry in the American occupation forces in Germany, and he was one of six soldiers sent to Châlons to act as escorts. By his own telling, the six expected to serve only as pallbearers. Then the officer in charge of grave registrations said one of them would make the choice, and handed Younger the roses. ## The choice, step by step - **October 23:** the four caskets arrive by truck at Châlons city hall. - **October 24:** Younger, carrying roses given by a Frenchman who had lost two sons in the war, circles the caskets as a French band plays, then places the flowers on one and salutes it. - **The position:** it was the second casket from the right, which is the same as the third from the left. - **The other three:** reburied at the Meuse-Argonne American cemetery in France. - **October 25:** the chosen casket, after a funeral train via Paris to Le Havre, is carried aboard the cruiser USS Olympia. - **November 9:** Olympia reaches the Washington Navy Yard; the Unknown lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda. - **November 11, 1921:** burial at Arlington, three years to the day after the Armistice. The Army account says the roses stayed on the casket all the way to Arlington and were buried with the soldier. Younger himself remembered the bouquet as pink and white; the official histories describe white roses. ## Honors from seven nations At the 1921 ceremony the Unknown received the Victoria Cross, presented by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Beatty for King George V, along with France’s Legion of Honour, Médaille Militaire and Croix de Guerre and top decorations from Italy, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia. He also holds the US Medal of Honor. ## Younger’s own place at Arlington Younger left the Army in 1922 and went to work for the US Postal Service. For years he retold the story to veterans groups. He died in Chicago on August 6, 1942, and was buried in Section 18 of Arlington National Cemetery, the same cemetery as the soldier he chose. The Unknown arrived home three years after the guns fell silent; Badiyaa has told how [the 1918 Armistice was signed near 5 a.m. but took effect at 11 a.m.](https://badiyaa.com/armistice-1918-signed-5am-effect-11am/), how [the Harlem Hellfighters spent 191 days in the trenches](https://badiyaa.com/harlem-hellfighters-369th-infantry-world-war-i/), and how [the two-minute silence began on a Cape Town street](https://badiyaa.com/two-minute-silence-cape-town-1918-noon-gun/). The tomb has been under military guard since March 25, 1926, and around the clock since July 2, 1937. Its west panel reads: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Edward F. Younger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_F._Younger) - [Wikipedia: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Soldier_(Arlington)) - [US Army: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier had its origins in World War I](https://www.army.mil/article/210343/tomb_of_the_unknown_soldier_had_its_origins_in_world_war_i) *Image: Harris & Ewing, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*