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Search for Father Leads to Arlington

On a drizzly, overcast afternoon in March, a man walked through Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and fell to his knees in front of a simple stone marker. A soldier's funeral was going on nearby, but the man had eyes only for one tombstone which identified the grave of Ernest L. Wrentmore, veteran of World War I, World War II and Korea. The back side of the stone states that Wrentmore had been the "youngest soldier to have served with American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, 12 years of age." Tears filling his eyes, Ernest L. Wrentmore III ran his fingers softly over the marker, pressed his lips to the cold stone, and began whispering to the father he had waited so long to know.

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