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A Prank Led to America’s First Nominated Female to Office, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 13, 2019 33 min

29. The Military Honors and Awards of WWI’s Unknown Soldier

Honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. NPR

Not only is America’s World War I Unknown Soldier a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, he has also been awarded the Victoria Cross, The Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre, as well as the highest service awards of numerous other nations.

Each of his Unknown comrades who have joined him over the years, in the aftermath of World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam, has also been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, presented by the US President presiding at his funeral.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.