On Memorial Day, we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms. This year, we speak with Arlington Cemetery Historian Timothy Frank, on recognizing a century of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. . .

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Memorial Day inspires mixed emotions: pride in the valor of those who gave their lives in the cause of freedom; sorrow that such self-sacrifice should have been necessary. Pride in past valor may be best expressed in the St. Crispin’s Day speech from “Henry V” (Act IV, Scene iii), delivered by the young king on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt. . . .

Commentary: Pop, the uncle who raised me, carried with him for more than half a century a haunting memory from his time aboard the aircraft carrier Essex in World War II. Anti-aircraft fire had killed a turret gunner during a sortie. Pop, whose job it was to repair and prepare planes for the next mission, went up to inspect the plane as soon as it landed. What he encountered was a gruesome sight: the decapitated body of the turret gunner in a blood-soaked turret.

The captain of the Essex dispatched the ship’s chaplain to ask Pop if the plane could be patched up enough to fly again. Pop’s reply to the captain, via the chaplain/messenger, was, “Yes, but with all this blood in the tropical heat, it will stink to high heaven. I recommend we bury this man in the plane in which he had given his life for his country.” When the chaplain relayed Pop’s message to the captain up on the bridge, the captain turned to Pop and gave him the thumbs-up signal. The subsequent burial at sea was unique. It was the only time during World War II that a still-flightworthy aircraft was used as a coffin. . .