She said the latest expansion project means the cemetery has now used all of the available land — creatively. But we did it so that we could open up new burial space.
Under the Army proposal to cut eligibility, veterans without major combat awards can still be laid to rest at Arlington, but only if they choose cremation. Mark Belinsky of the Military Officers Association of America said as Arlington fills up, the government should build another similar national cemetery somewhere else where veterans can receive full military honors.
She said veterans like her should be grandfathered so that the changes would only impact new service members. Dugan supports the idea of a new national cemetery, even though she said Arlington could never be replicated.
Durham-Aguilera, the cemetery director, said veterans do have other choices, like state military cemeteries and more than national cemeteries around the country run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. But she said the criteria for burials at Arlington has to change. So to be able to do that, we need to plan for our future. In , the U. Arlington National Cemetery consequently expanded to include Sections 21, 22 and In , Congress authorized a designated section for Confederate soldiers, at a time when the nation was trying to reconcile after the Civil War.
The Confederate section Section 16 contains the graves of veterans and spouses. After World War I, more than 2, U. President William Howard Taft was buried at Arlington in , making him one of only two presidents buried here. President John F. Kennedy became the second on November 25, By the s, to prevent the cemetery from running out of space, the U.
Columbarium courts were also created for above-ground inurnments. Today, approximately , veterans and their eligible dependents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
As Meigs recorded later, many of the officers quartered in the mansion were uncomfortable with the idea of living in the middle of a graveyard, "It was my intention to have begun the interments nearer the mansion, but opposition on the part of officers stationed at Arlington, some of whom used the mansion and who did not like to have the dead buried near them, caused the interments to be begun in the northeast corner of the grounds near Arlington road.
On discovering this on a visit I gave specific instructions to make the burials near the mansion. They were then driven off by the same influence to the western portion of the grounds. Meigs continued to push the issue and, after considerable effort, finally got his wish. In August , 26 bodies were buried along the perimeter of Mrs.
This letter, directed to Major General D. There being more than a thousand interments yet to be made, the views of the Quartermaster General can now be carried out. Both practically and symbolically, the possibility of Robert E. Lee and his family returning to the mansion on the hilltop at Arlington which literally looked down upon the capital city of the United States did not sit well with those in charge of creating the cemetery.
To further ensure that this did not happen, Meigs ordered the construction of a tomb for unknown Civil War dead in the rose garden in April The remains of 2, unknown soldiers, recovered from battlefields in the vicinity of Washington, were sealed in the vault.
As it turned out, the Lees would never return to live at Arlington again. Lee and his wife decided not to pursue regaining the title to the mansion after the War. While the family was later compensated for the estate, the Lees would never again reside on the property. Washington, D. Christman was laid to rest on May 13, Robert E. Hide Caption. Roosevelt visiting the tomb of an unknown soldier on Armistice Day in the Arlington Cemetery in Robert Kennedy kneels by the eternal flame at the grave of his brother, President John F.
Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in January Robert F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery on June 8, Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, contains the remains of more than , people from the United States and 11 other countries, buried there since the s. More than three million people visit the cemetery annually. Lee, inherited the estate. It was abandoned by the Lees during the Civil War and used as headquarters for the Union army.
Read More. Lee and run by the National Park Service. Arlington National Cemetery is administered by the Department of the Army.
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