Posted on 09/26/2019 10:46:35 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
Acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy on Sept. 25 announced new criteria for interment (burial) and inurnment (preservation of cremated remains) at Arlington National Cemetery to keep from running out of space in the nation’s most hallowed military cemetery.
Congress called on the Army to revise the criteria for burial at the cemetery in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, with the goal to keep it functioning as an active burial ground for another 150 years. That’s not possible under present rules.
Today, some 95,000 burial spaces remain available, but with more than 20 million living veterans and 2 million military members currently serving, the population of potential eligibles keeps growing. Without changes to eligibility, the cemetery will be full by the mid-2050s, according to the Army.
Today, any Active Duty member or veteran with at least one day of active service is eligible for burial at Arlington.
Under the proposed new rules, below-ground interment will be limited to presidents and vice presidents, as well as military members or veterans:
• Killed in action, including repatriated remains of service members
•Awarded the Silver Star or service Cross or Medal of Honor
•Awarded the Purple Heart
•Suffering combat-related service deaths during “unique” military activities
•Formerly held as prisoners of war
•Or who served in combat and also served out of uniform in government and “made significant contributions to the nation’s security at the highest levels of public service.”
Those eligible to be inurned above ground must be either:
•World War II-era veterans, including legislated active duty designees
•Retirees from the military who are eligible for retirement pay but not eligible for interment
•Veterans who served at least two years on active duty and served in combat
•Or veterans who did not serve in combat, but did serve out of uniform in government service and “made significant contributions to the nations security at the highest levels of public service.”
A notice of the new rules will be posted for public comment in the Federal Register within the next nine months, according to the cemetery.
At the same time, the cemetery is planning a large expansion of the grounds on the southern side of the cemetery, including the area surrounding the Air Force Memorial. The expansion will add another 60,000 new burial plots and a large new columbarium for cremated remains.
A quiet part of the grounds, without having to fight crowds honoring our dead, from there you can quietly give your own personal homage to the silent dead...
I am affected by this, as I am retired from the United States Air Force.
I support it. Heroes who die on Active Duty should have precedence.
No politicians!!!
Seems to me, what they are saying is: “politicians”
I always thought five or six deep condo stile would help.
It will never quit bothering me that McStain is burried there.
What an insult to the men who sacrificed so much, so he could do the things he did.
Sitting there like you mention, I’m sure it’s a great experience.
Kudos...
McCain is buried at the USNA, at Annapolis, so there’s one less bother for you. :)
Looks like it. I’m only eligible if I’m cremated now.
But they will make room for AOC.
Does that mean we get to dig-up Teddy Kennedy? He doesn’t fit any of the new criteria.
I am of the opinion that when a National Cemetary reaches 90% capacity, there should be constructed a Masolium that would hold the remains of those who have been there for more than 100 years.
In the case of Arlington, this would cover Civil War through WWI
I know some would feel that this is not right, but I am of the opinion that re-internment can be done properly and with dignity. This policy would create more “space” for others that need to be buried.
Thank you. I recall that now that you mention it.
Sad for the good men buried there.
Still stinks.
Appreciate the correction...
Step #1 should be to dig up that murderer Ted Kennedy and thrown his bones into the Potomac. Then fumigate the plot and it will be fit for someone who deserves to be there.
I commented on this study. I did allow for civilians or nonCombat Veterans going forward. Why should a senator or congressman or presidential appointee be allowed on hallowed grounds for a final rest?
Darn it .... I did NOT allow for
Wasn't McLame 352nd in his graduating class at the Academy?
I have a friend whose father was a Korea Vet who is buried in another national cemetery.
When her mom recently died she was buried there with her husband. Stacked one over another as you suggest.
This cemetery is absolutely beautiful, as is Arlington.
The people maintaining them on behalf of our deceased veterans are to be commended.
According to this bullet AOC does not qualify as she has never been in the military:
•Or veterans who did not serve in combat, but did serve out of uniform in government service and “made significant contributions to the nations security at the highest levels of public service.”
My wife’s apartment is one half block from the entrance to Ft Meyer. She walks home from the State Department thru Arlington using her dependent ID card for putting up with some old girder who was a 20 paratrooper and traveled the world with her in tow for 18 years... Love Arlington.
I was going to say we could free up two spaces by removing Ted Kennedy and John McCain.
(Please don't make fun of this aspect. But uis tere a moral reason not to emlpoy it?)
Another way to be more area-economical plan might be to use some kind of above-ground structures with vertical shelves like in many cemeteries.
In this state, the veteran's cemetery already permits a vet and his/her wife to be buried at the same plot vertically.
I'm not being irreverent here, in pondering on this.
Could we give a Navy veteran the opportunity of being buried at sea, as one choice? (I know, this is kind of hare-brained.)
How about some other ways of permanent storage that allows the family and the public convenient access, eh?
I agree: “no politicians”.
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