Buried as a Mystery, Remembered by Name: The Story of Michael Blassie

On this episode of Our American Stories, he was buried as the Vietnam Unknown beneath the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but Michael Joseph Blassie’s story didn’t end there. Craig Du Mez of the Grateful Nation Project shares the story of how DNA revealed his name and changed a national tradition.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we return to our American stories. One of our
nation's most symbolic grave sites is in Arlington National Cemetery,
just outside of Washington, d C. The Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier honors three unidentified service members today, one from
World War One, one from World War Two, and one

(00:31):
from the Korean War, but it used to be four.
Here to tell the story of the Identified Unknown Soldier
is Craig Dumay of the Grateful Nation Project. Let's get
into the story.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
On the morning of May eleventh, nineteen seventy two, First
Lieutenant Blassie took off from the ben Hua Airbase in
South Vietnam in his Dragonfly A thirty seven. Just four
months after arriving in Vietnam. He'd already flown one hundred
and thirty seven combat missions. On this day, he was

(01:07):
targeting an enemy artillery position outside of Anloche, sixty miles
north of Saigon. Blassie graduated from high school in Florissant, Missouri,
in nineteen sixty six. He trained as a pilot and
qualified to fly the Cessna A thirty seven Dragonfly, a

(01:30):
small light jet powered attack aircraft nicknamed the Super Tweet.
These planes were relatively inexpensive, and because they could fly
low and slow, they could deliver firepower more accurately than
heavier conventional bombers. That accuracy came at a price. The
Dragonfly was also more vulnerable to enemy ground fire. Blassie's

(01:53):
flight commander, Major James Connolly described the attack and a
letter to Blassie's parents. Mike's aircraft was hit and began
streaming of fuel. He must have been killed instantly because
he did not transmit a distress call of any kind.
The aircraft flew a short distance on its own and
then slowly rolled over, exploding on impact in enemy health territory.

(02:20):
Mike Blassi H. Twenty four was declared killed in action.
One of the consequences of warfare has been large numbers
of unidentified dead. Sometimes unidentified remains resulted from poor record keeping,
the damage that weapons of war inflicted on bodies, or

(02:41):
the haste required to bury the dead and mark grave
sites in a battlefield environment. While exact numbers are unattainable,
estimates indicate that nearly half of the Civil War dead
were never identified. Unidentified remains were often buried in mass graves,
but in December nineteen twenty, New York Congressman and World
War I veteran Hamilton Fish Junior, proposed legislation providing for

(03:05):
the interment of one unknown American soldier had a special
tomb to be built in Arlington National Cemetery. The purpose
of the legislation was to bring home the body of
an unknown American warrior who in himself represents no section, creed,
or race in the late war, and who typifies moreover

(03:27):
the soul of America and the supreme sacrifice of her
heroic dead. On November eleventh, nineteen twenty one, a horse
drawn caisson carried the remains of an unknown soldier through Washington,
d c. And over the Potomac River to Arlington National
Cemetery in Virginia. The inscription on the west side of

(03:50):
the tomb sarcophagus reads, here rests in honored glory an
American soldier known but to God. Following World War II,
some Americans supported the idea of interring and honoring and

(04:10):
unknown from that war. In August nineteen fifty six, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the selection and interment of unknowns
from both World War II and Korea. Before the Vietnam
War ended, Arlington National Cemetery made preparations to add a

(04:33):
third crypt. On Memorial Day, May twenty eighth, nineteen eighty four,
remains designated X twenty six were interred as the Vietnam
Unknown in a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, the.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Unknown Soldier who was returned to us today, in whom
we later rest a symbolic of all our missing sons.
About him, we may well wonder, as others, am did
he play on some street in a great American city,
or did he work with side his father on a
farm out in America's heartland? Did he marry? Did he

(05:11):
have children? Did he look expectantly to return to a bride.
We'll never know the answers to these questions about his life.
We do know, though, why he died. He saw the
horrors of war, but bravely faced them, certain his own cause,
in his country's cause, was a noble one, that he

(05:33):
was fighting for human dignity, for free men everywhere.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
However, at that time, many people believed that advances in
technology would mean that all remains from Vietnam could eventually
be identified. This brings us to Vietnam Air Force pilot
Michael Joseph Blassi. The early nineteen nineties, reports began to

(06:02):
surface that the Vietnam Unknown could possibly be the fallen
pilot Mike. Blassi's family was not informed that the crash
site had been accessed or that remains were recovered. The
Allied South Vietnamese Army recovered Blassie's personal belongings and six
bone fragments. All were sent to the Saigon Mortuary and
finally to Hawaii's Central Identification Laboratory, with Blassie's remains being

(06:26):
separated from the personal belongings and other items from the
crash site. A series of mistakes and flawed procedures led
to his remains being reclassified as designated unknown and stored
at the Central Identification Laboratory in a file with the
label X twenty six. The Blassi family visited the tomb
in the following years, unaware that their son and brother

(06:48):
was buried there. After years of political and media pressure
from the Blassi family, in the middle of the night,
soldiers of the Old Guard stood watch and blocked the view.
The Vietnam Unknown would be disinterred and DNA tested. DNA

(07:10):
test results confirmed a perfect match with Michael Blassie's older
sister Judy. Twenty six years after his Dragonfly was shot down,
First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie's remains were returned to his
family in Saint Louis, where he was laid to rest
at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. As of today, the crypt

(07:30):
that once held the remains of the Vietnam War unknown
is empty. The slab over that crypt has been replaced,
changing the Vietnam War inscription. It now reads Honoring and
keeping faith with America's Missing Serviceman, a reminder of the
commitment of the United States Armed Forces to the fullest
possible accounting for our missing heroes.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. And a special thanks to
Craig Dumey of the Grateful Nation Project. To find out
more about the great work they do, go to Herocards
dot Us. That's Herocards dot Us. And if you're ever
visiting Washington, DC, make sure you make a stop at

(08:28):
Arlington National Cemetery. It's just outside of Washington, d C.
It's got its own dedicated metro stop and be prepared
to stay awhile and be prepared not to speak what
a story was told about First Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie.
He graduates from a suburban high school in Saint Louis

(08:48):
in nineteen sixty six, qualifies as a pilot, and the
next thing you know, he's flying the supertweet the Dragonfly
low and slow, which of course led to his timely
and tragic death at the age of twenty four, killed
in action. And then all the work of the family
to find out what they found out the story of

(09:12):
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, known soldier, and that
would be Lieutenant Blassi. First Lieutenant Blassi hear on our
American Stories