The unknown soldier, the soldier whose body lacked identification and, thereby, was left a mystery to all. Of course, all of these unidentified soldiers had previous lives, previous identification, and entire personalities that were left behind and never remembered by anyone. Also, sometimes, on great occasions, some of the unidentified soldiers are given names and are finally identified after they have been a mysterious shadow of the negativity of war. Unfortunately, not every soldier is identified in what we would consider a timely manner. Due to lack of records, it might even be decades, or even centuries before some of the soldiers are given a name that corresponds to their previous life; that is, if they are identified. Previously, one World War I veteran was newly identified due to DNA testing.

This man, the newly and finally identified man, is finally given a name after nearly a century of shadowing the Earth among those of the nameless. According to the DNA tests, the particular individual’s name was Tomas Toni. He was born on May 12 in the year 1890. According to previous records, he and his family were Ellis Island immigrants that immigrated to the U.S. from Italy. Since the actual records that regarded Toni’s immigration were not detailed to a practical level, the date of his arrival to Ellis Island was left unknown and, therefore, unaccounted for. Also, it is known that Toni lived in an apartment building in New York City before the start of war. This was home for him. Toni loved city life not because he wanted to, but because it was the only life he had ever known. He was single and had no children, but he had an abundant multitude of friends due to his keen social skills, outgoing personality, and intriguing charisma. It was said that Toni could go into a room full of strangers and leave the room with a group of new, often lifelong friends. Toni was a brilliant man, he spoke Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English, all at a superior level. Toni was a tall man. He was six feet three inches. He was also muscular, he weighed 240 pounds and was nearly pure muscle. He had brown hair, moderately tan skin, and deep, impenetrable brown eyes.

Unfortunately, on June 5th , 1915, the twenty-five year old man was drafted to serve in the U.S. army. With barely any training, Toni was reluctantly sent on the ship that was making its way to Europe. It eventually landed in Italy, his home land, and, without any previous signal, Toni was told to exit the ship and start the long, grueling journey up to Germany. Finally, after a week of travel, Toni and the other troops arrived in Germany. Unfortunately, the most impromptu experience ever endured by the men was swiftly inflicted upon them. After a few seconds after crossing the border into Germany, the soldiers were met with enemy machinegun fire. As Toni took out his gun, he suddenly felt the hot pierce of bullets in his stomach, he was shot. An exuberantly abundant amount of machine gun bullets were shot into Toni’s stomach and chest. Being nearly bifurcated, Toni died instantly, after only one week of service. His body was returned back to America, but was left unidentified. The preceding is all that is known about this man. Many questions are still left regarding his family, his occupation, his friends, his personality, his childhood, and, broadly, who he was in a previous state, the state of being alive.