Ronald John Hemenway – ET-1, United States Navy

Ronald John Hemenway, 37, of Shawnee, Kansas, an electronics technician first class of the U.S. Navy.

Click here for additional information on the Memorial Services.

From a contemporary press report

Unidentifiable remains of victims of the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, the military said Friday.

The September 12, 2002, ceremony will hold special significance for families of five people whose remains have never been identified, said Colonel Jody Draves, a spokeswoman for the Military District of Washington, which oversees the cemetery.

The service will include burial of the cremated ashes of all remains not linked to a particular victim, as well as some remains which were identified that family members asked to be included.

“The intent is not as a memorial service but as a group burial for victims not identified,” Draves said.

The Pentagon attack killed 189 people: 125 in the Pentagon and 64 aboard American Airlines Flight 77. Remains of the five hijackers on the flight have been separated from those of the victims.

The five victims whose remains have not been identified include:

Retired Army Colonel Ronald Golinski, a civilian Pentagon worker
Navy ET1 Ronald Hemenway
Rhonda Rasmussen, a civilian worker for the Army
James T. Lynch, a civilian worker for the Navy

Dana Falkenberg, a passenger on Flight 77

Many relatives will also attend a group burial September 12, 2002, at Arlington National Cemetery honoring the 184 victims who were killed at the Pentagon or on the plane that was crashed into the building when five hijackers took control. Remains from many of the victims will be placed in a single casket and buried in a grave site marked with a headstone bearing all the victims’ names.

The unique ceremony at Arlington will include a funeral service at the Memorial Amphitheater near the Tomb of the Unknowns, the first time the amphitheater will be used for such a service since an unknown service member from the Vietnam War was buried there in 1984 during an emotional Memorial Day ceremony with President Ronald Reagan. Those remains were exhumed in 1998 for DNA tests, which showed that they were of Air Force Captain Michael Blassie.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard