Article snippet: On the other side of the Atlantic, at Arlington National Cemetery, the president of the United States lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier paying homage to America’s fallen. The story of a salty gunnery sergeant links the two iconic events, a Marine who received two Medals of Honor and who had two names, including one he falsified: Ernest A. Janson. the waist-deep wheat. The Marines advanced in Civil War–style formations. As they gazed to their right and left, they viewed a panorama largely untouched by the Great War: sinuous hills of grain, clumps of trees, and a lush, verdant forest that served as a hunting preserve prior to the war. The dense kidney-shaped woods known as Bois de Belleau occupied roughly one square mile of land where in June 1918 the U.S. Marine Corps and Army’s second Division would make an epic stand that halted one of the German army’s final great offensives of the war on Paris. Two deep ravines cut through the trees, and massive boulders, some the size of a small building, littered the ground making Belleau Wood a natural fortress. A ridge 142 meters high, and therefore dubbed Hill 142, sprawled to the west. Janson’s company had to take and hold the hill from hundreds of battle-hardened Germans. Unbeknownst to the attackers, the Marines faced a battalion from the German 460th Regiment and a battalion of the 273rd Regiment (both understrength), including several machine-gun companies. *** The Unknowns: The Untold Story of Amer... Link to the full article to read more