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.
Only one president is at Arlington. JFK. I doubt most would go there when they have library grounds.
McStain is NOT buried there he is buried at the academy!!! Politicians should NEVER stain this hollowed ground, corrupt SCUM should NEVER be allowed there EVER!!!
And Taft. Google knows all. Lol.
Ted alone would open up 3 or 4 spaces.
Except he is buried at The Naval Academy.
I will let you do the digging.
My father is there- 33 years in the Army. I qualify, but have my plot all picked out and paid for here near home. I approve of the changes; someone with a day, a week, a month, even a year of active duty doesn’t belong there unless they performed some heroic act or benefited the service or the nation somehow.
Thanks to you and others that reminded me of that.
Okay, I limit my disdain to the grounds and patriots tainted by that jackass being buried there.
I am sure there are some jerks buried there.
I’m sure there are in both areas.
Very few of them probably reach the level of McCain.
YEARS ago, a Marine Colonel told us a story about motivation.
In Arlington they stack the coffins one atop each other due to limited space.
The groundskeepers dug a hole deep enough for five caskets, then called it a day.
That night, after the bars closed, a drunk stumbled through the place and fell into the hole. He tried to get out for the next half hour, then failed and crapped out in a corner.
Soon another drunk came by and fell into the hole, waking the up the first drunk, who watched as the second guy tried to jump out again and again.
“Buddy, you ain’t ever getting out that way” he said.
The guy cleared the hole in one jump, as as far is known, is still running.
Isn’t Ted Kennedy buried at Arlington?
And he enlisted before he could be drafted, because there was a shooting war on and the draft was still alive and well.
I pulled up ANC on google maps and used the photo feature. It reveals that the areal shown at the top of the photo you posted, between Patton and Jessup is part of the existing AND and is filled with veteran’s graves.
No traitors like Ted Kennedy.
Hi Imardmd1, My father was cremated here in Boston, his remains and flag were given to the Navy, my mother put a few stiches on the flag before handing it over. They taped the service which was also held for a few more veterans. They gave my mother a tape, map, a letter from the ship’s commander. The same flag was returned.
As a matter of fact so is John F. Kennedy, and also Robert Kennedy.
John and Robert I don't mind so much, them being assassinated. Ted is another issue entirely for me. NO!
Joseph Kennedy Jr. is buried at Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, in the United Kingdom. Source
Arlington National Cemetery has never been a honest custodian. They were stacking vets like cordwood in graves a few years ago.
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