Arlington National Cemetery is back in the news again, and – once again – the news isn’t good:
The list is 84 names long — mostly generals and colonels. There’s a sergeant major of the Army, a former assistant Army secretary, a Navy vice admiral, a former congressman.
They are VIPs with one of the most prestigious tickets in Washington: a reserved plot at Arlington National Cemetery, the nation’s premier military burial ground.
On Thursday, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) is to introduce legislation that would revoke those reservations — made under an unofficial system that continued for decades in violation of Army policy — and force the cemetery to determine how many plots have been set aside.
In an interview Monday, Warner said he wanted to make sure that Arlington does not play favorites with its graves and that it does not honor any reservations made after 1962, when officials decided the cemetery’s coveted plots should be offered without regard to rank or status.
“It’s a disgrace that backroom deals were being made and some general might trump the rights of a fallen soldier from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Warner said.
You bet.
Rank may indeed have its privileges in this life, but none of them ought to survive the wearer’s death. In the end, of dust we came, and to dust we shall return.
To be buried amongst the rank and file of all the men and women, without regard to enlisted or officer status, but all heroes nonetheless, would be a fine and honorable resting place.
Desecrated to the level of allowing life-long career chair-warmers from the legislature to be buried there absent ever giving military service.
Frankly, I wouldn’t want to be buried in the same water table with Fat Teddy Kennedy anyway.
Hallowed ground once desecrated is difficult to resanctify, more’s the pity.
You would think Officers and other military leaders would understand the words, ” Honor, Courage & Commitment ” especially when it comes to final honors …Guess they missed that when they swore an oath…..it was not lost on this Petty Officer.
I have asked my family to place me at the National Cemetery in Bourne, MA which is located on Cape Cod…..if there is a better resting spot, where my kids will be able to stop by & pay me respects on a regular occasion, I have yet to discover it.
http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/massachusetts.asp#np
Had the honor of being a caretaker at the Mass. National Cemetery for 18 years giving Veterans their last benefit. There is a Memorial walk with over 40 Memorials from WW1 to now, VFW, Waves, Flying Tigers, VN Vets etc. Worth a visit if your on the Cape.
F in A.
With my luck I would spend eternity with a view of the parking lot. That’s why I opted for the ever more scenic buirial beyond the 100 fathom curve. I thought that was appropriate for a SWO. Of course, the most appropriate last wiches were those of a HTCM I served with. He wanted to be buried at sea, but wanted the ceremony to be held in the Chief’s Bething head, so he could take one last tour of the CHT system on the way to Davy Jones.
I would love to be there when the Chaplain says, “We commit his body to the sea” and the ceremonial pall bearer hits the flushometer!
At least one is reserved for my ex-father-in-law who just passed. He deserved it:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/richard-bibb/alfred-naydock-sr-rip/10150153450248153
I have asked to be cremated. I just can’t justify taking up nice ground that could be used for something like growing crops, or a picnic, playing ball, etc.
I suggested that the kids might consider using my ashes for an arts & crafts project. Take the ash, mix it with some polymer resin, and cast it into a statue of a gargoyle. They could put it on the mantle, and when someone come to visit and enquired about it, they could just say, “Oh.. that’s my dad”. “No… seriously THAT IS my dad”.
I mean, what a great ice breaker, eh?
That made me grin, Tim.
As a civilian I’d never even be considered for Arlington but as a personal aside I have always wanted to have a big granite slide as a marker so that the little kids that get dragged to the cemetery for family remembrances could have a blast playing and climbing all over me. Not a bad way to spend eternity, you know?
I think that that is a wonderful idea. When my two older kids were little, we used ti go for a picnic at the cemetery. There is some beautiful sculpture and art in there, and it’s a shame so few see it. We would walk along and I could tell them stories about some of the families, the City folks with some claim or another to fame, history, whatever.
It was a good learning experience for them.
That is fine by me. If I gave 20 years up and I cannot get in by their current standards, then those rat bastages sure as hell should not be providing reserved seating. Bunch of corksockers.
As far as I’m concerned, NO politician should be interned in that hallowed ground unless they served in our Military, regardless of how good they supposedly did their political duty. Ba5tards, every one.
As for myself, I’m leaning toward the cemetery at the Zoo. Quiet, and a great view of the Rampart Range.
I had a MMCM(SS) tell me he that when he shuffled off this mortal coil, he wanted to be cremated, mixed up in a douche, and run through one last time.
The world is sadly afflicted with way too many people who have decided to go that route whilst skipping the death and cremation phases.
Ain’t THAT the truth. Sigh.
When I shuffle off I’m being buried upright in a cardboard coffin and used to fertilise a tree in a forest with a little bronze plaque to say I was here.
I’d hoped for a chance at D.D. Harriman’s end, but that future was scuttled by the government’s desire to subsidize the production of poor children.
…and Colonel Boyd is STILL the only AF ossifer there with a USMC brassard stuck to his headstone.
As far as I’m concerned, the whole idea of that cemetery is an insult to the Lee family, and it was deliberately started as such. If you ask me, the only people legitimately buried there are the Lee family slaves and the Lee girls’ cats. (The Lees were cat people.)
P.s. There was a time when Lee was out in Texas or somewhere before the War, when he wanted a kitteh and couldn’t find one. He had to settle for a pet rattlesnake, which was happy to curl up and sleep on his lap.
And Longstreet had his office in the west tower of tre Alamo mission at the same time.
V/RT