Pioneers in Medicine, like Walter Reed who discovered the cause of Yellow Fever and ultimately became the namesake for the famed Army Medical Center.  And Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine credited with saving millions of lives since 1965. And Anita McGee – the first woman Army Surgeon in US history.

Arlington is filled with Pioneers in the National Security field who fought gallantly behind the scenes for our country while steadfastly avoiding any public recognition - from William “Wild Bill” Donovan, founder of the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS – the World War II forerunner of the CIA to Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 Spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union - from Richard Helms, the Director of Central Intelligence during the Vietnam War - to Johnny Micheal Spann, the CIA Agent who became the first American casualty of the War on Terror when he was killed in 2001 by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Arlington is filled with American Explorers who pushed the boundaries of the known world – Pioneers whose names are taught in every schoolroom to every student in the country.

The team of Admiral Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made history in the early 20th century by becoming the first men ever to fly over the North Pole.  In doing so, both were awarded Peace Time Congressional Medals of Honor.

After Floyd Bennett’s untimely death in 1928, Richard Byrd teamed up with Bernt Balchen to become the first men to fly over the South Pole.  So devastated was Byrd by the death of his friend Floyd Bennett that he took a stone from Bennett’s grave at Arlington and tossed it from his plane directly over the South Pole.

Adolphus Greely, co-founder of the National Geographic Society, fought in the Civil War, then volunteered to lead the official U.S. military expedition to the Arctic as part of the International Polar Year in 1882.  Greely won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his mission, and while he and his men never made it to the North Pole, famed Arctic explorer Robert Edwin Peary did.

Peary was buried with full military honors shortly after his death in 1920.  The National Geographic Society erected a memorial at his gravesite to commemorate his historic journey to the North Pole.

Over the years, one of the most frequent visitors to Peary’s grave was a man named Matthew Hensen, a former Washington DC clothing store clerk who had become a long time friend and collaborator on many of Peary’s Arctic Expeditions. 

With Peary’s help, Hensen became an expert dogsled driver and an avid explorer. He learned the ways of the Eskimo and, because of his dark skin, was accepted by them.

After several failed expeditions, Peary with his trusted companion Hensen, heroically conquered the Arctic and reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. 

It was Hensen, though, that was in fact the very first to plant the American flag on the pole.

Ultimately, Peary was hailed as a national hero and went down in history.  Hensen, on the other hand, received little credit and drifted off into obscurity taking a job at a Harlem garage.

Upon his death in 1955, he was buried at a cemetery in the Bronx, New York – his grave marked with a small, inconsequential inscription that read only “Reached the North Pole with Peary.”

In 1986, Hensen’s heroic story was brought to light, and after an authorization by President Reagan, on April 6, 1988, 79 years after reaching the pole, Hensen and his wife were buried at Arlington with military honors in a grave adjacent to Robert Peary.

While some American Pioneers pushed the boundaries of the known world, others set their sights beyond the limits of earth.

Virgil “Gus” Grissom, and Roger Chaffee were killed in the 1967 launch pad fire of the first Apollo spacecraft and are buried at Arlington, as is James Webb, a man who many consider to be NASA’s greatest administrator and a pioneer in space exploration.

Two monuments that stand not far from the Memorial Amphitheatre at the center of Arlington immortalize modern tragedies etched vividly in the memories of millions of Americans– one for the Space Shuttle Challenger containing remains of the 7-member crew, and a newer memorial to the Space Shuttle Columbia. 

Pilot of the Challenger Michael J. Smith and Mission Commander Francis “Dick” Scobee are buried at Arlington, as are Mike Anderson, David Brown and Laural Clark, lost on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.