Army proposal for Arlington may remove qualification for burial at Arlington for retired service members
Based on estimates, Arlington National Cemetery will run out of space in the near future. According to the article, by 2025. If this proposal is approved, those who retired from the military will no longer be eligible for burial there. However, there is a suggestion to modify this proposal. Those receiving military retirement pay, effective this policy’s implementation, should be grandfathered and keep their eligibility.
From the military Times, commentary:
Imagine you are an 80-year-old who served over 30 years of active military service — with the literal battle scars to prove it — having made plans to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. You and your family made these plans because a burial, with the appropriate honors is what the military promised you when you joined AND when you retired. Now as you and your family think about how and where your life and sacrifice to our nation are to be honored — you discover your end of life plans are null and void. (Even worse — your family finds out after you are gone.)
That’s the scenario that will play out for military retirees if the Army is successful in denying burial benefits for retirees at Arlington. The changes proposed will render those who honorably served 20 or more years ineligible for in-ground burial and the military honors currently afforded to retirees at Arlington. It seems bizarre that the Army is proposing to eliminate Arlington burial benefits for veterans alive today in order to benefit those who have yet to serve one day in uniform — but that is exactly what is before the Congress.
The military Times has the full article here.
Category: Military issues
I don’t recall EVER being promised burial at Arlington. Burial at a military cemetery, yes, but no promise of which one… was sort of a ‘needs of the Army’ thing where I could go where I wanted if there was space available. As an honorably discharged non-combat vet, albeit with a disability, I am told I can be interred at the columbarium at Arlington (ashes only) which is interesting to be near my dad, mom, and great-aunt there, but as of 2002 they said full-body burial for folks like me was long off the table even then to conserve space for KIAs. Maybe they could generate a little more space there by eliminating non-vet politicians’ burials.
“…by eliminating non vet politician’s burials.” My thought exactly David. And make a few more spots by removing those that are already there.
One has to wonder what is the current and/or future policy on the non vet burials.
Hack stone has attended five ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. The first was a service for a retired Army Colonel who swerved in WWII, Kore and Vietnam. He was interred in a plot, but I believe that he was cremated. Between his death and internment was about five months.
The second was for a friends father, who served in the Army during WWII. Don’t think that he retired, he was cremated and placed in the columbarium.
The third was Hack’s uncle, a Korean War vet who was a Ranger. He did one hitch, then got out and worked as an FBI agent. That was a columbarium internment also.
The last two were Jonn’s service, which was a plot, and the final was for a retired Navy Seabee, who received a plot. His service was within two months of dying, which for Arlington is pretty quick turn around.
Both of my Grandfathers are interned, one in a burial plot the other in a urn monument. I would love to be there with them but know space is limited. I am OK with that.
As a retiree I would hate to be “interned” at Arlington. 😉 I already have a home I’m quite comfortable in.
(The word you are looking for is “interment”, i.e. Burial.)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interment
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internment
Signed, Captain Pedantic, Grammar Nazi.
“As a retiree I would hate to be “interned” at Arlington”. So would I, which is why I wrote interred, the correctly spelled past tense of inter. I assume you had to have been addressing me, since the only use of any form of inter above your comment is in my post.
I yield to no one in pedanticism.
So now the headline reads: “Army proposal for Arlington may remove “illegibility” for burial at Arlington for retired service members”
Illegibility?
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/illegibility
I think maybe you meant “ineligibility?” 😉
Whoops, not directed at you, David but at the person who edited the headline.
I was referring to the headline which previously discussed whether veterans could be “interned” at Arlington.
The article says space will run out in 2055, not 2025. Op Ed written by two people who have nothing better to do than try and scare folks.
Nothing to see here, move along./s
If my kin must waste a few square feet for my husk, I have but one request: do not inter my bones within spitting distance of the District of Criminals. I’d rather spend eternity in Free’merica, such as the most proximate to Heaven on Earth, Fort BENNING GA.
If the desire sways you different, so be it. But I see within our lives those ANTIFackingLogic-types going ham on the headstones with tacit approval of our Appeasement Gov., ymmv.
I already told my wife to chuck me in the recycle bin.
Seriously, I’m going the cremation route. What happens to me after that is anybody’s guess.
I would never be comfortable with the thought of burial at Arlington. It probably should be limited to our war dead.
My wife is having me cremated and my ashes put on the mantel so she can “keep an eye on me” so yeah, no Arlinton for me either.
Arlington*
We received a similar story while there with the last relative we had buried there, some 30 years or so ago. It was fairly obvious that space was running out then.
So, what exactly is the “story” here? And who is supposed to get their panties in wad about it??
I spent a lot more time at Quantico than the few years at the Annex or Pentagon. Quantico looks over (or through the trees) of a bunch of areas I hunted way back when. Good enough for me. I prefer Quantico as my last resting place anyway. If Arlington fills up, it fills up. Not my fault or problem. Rather not be up on a mantle where the ‘wif’ can dog me about how many times I messed up in 32+ years – so far… Quantico is where I’ll rest. Hopefully on an edge near 6A, 6B, or 6C. Good times…
No honorable US vet should ever be denied a full plot at Arlington (to include one for the spouse), if that’s what they will.
Members of Congress, short of those being veterans, themselves, have no place there.
There is always more land, but don’t alter the landscape. A buddy’s grave I visited recently has a nice view of a creek running through the forest – he’d like that, please don’t take it away. Chip away at Fort Myer, first. Bulldoze the Pentagon, that will free up many acres for graves (and probably win a few more wars).
Personally, I don’t want a grave, anywhere, nor my cremated remains stored in a jar – please don’t bake me in some oven. I’d like an open pyre; light me up along some mountain lakeshore, let my body return to the earth as the wind carries my ashes where it may, let my soul ride the smoke into the heavens.
That, or reenact Weekend At Bernie’s perpetually until I literally rot off my bones.
Yeah, that’s probably better. Then do the open pyre thing.
Since I have no plans on dying ever, I haven’t given it much thought. However, men and women that are eligible should always have the option to go to Arlington, space be damned.
I told MRS that when I die, she is to buy a new refrigerator, bury me in the box, and remember me fondly every time she opens the door. She exercised her veto power. Told me I’m going in a Guinness bottle on the mantle. I’m ok with that.
If it’s going to fill up in 2055 rather than 2025, what’s the big deal? Leave the eligibility as is, and when it’s full, it’s full. There’s plenty of other national cemeteries. But yes, if we’re going to change, at least grandfather those who are currently eligible.
I have my spot at Bourne with a nice view of the old Otis AFB.
I’m guessing the exact location as the place fills up and the
older I get the more accurate my prediction. In any case it will
be just up the road a bit from my Dad who’s full body burial site
also contains the ashes of my mom. According to the rules, my
mentally disabled sibling (from birth) will also be interred there.
If they are going to change the rules for Arlington I fear they
will get around to changing the rules for all National Cemeteries
thus getting around to fucking me good and hard. If that is to be
the case then I will consider some of the more enlightening plans
being offered by this group of dickweeds.
After all, we only get one chance at it.
Dynamite the Air Force memorial. 😉
Eminent domain a bunch of condos and other property in the surrounding area.
Dig up all non veteran politicians (and a some veteran politicians-looking at you Ted Kennedy. Murtha would be a candidate for this also.)
I’ve expressed my wishes to be interred at a US Veterans Cemetery when my time comes, the same place as where my Grandad (WWII Vet) was laid to rest and I’m ALL FOR a ban on Non-Veterans being being buried in Arlington, especially career politicians.