How Long Is A Service At Arlington

Published September 6, 2021 at 3:00 AM PDT

Kathi Dugan, 73, retired from the Navy after 30 years. Her parents are both buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but Dugan may not be able to join them if the Army proceeds with a plan to cut eligibility for in-ground burials. — Kathi Dugan, 73, retired from the Navy later on 30 years. Her parents are both buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but Dugan may not be able to join them if the Army proceeds with a plan to cut eligibility for in-ground burials.

When Kathi Dugan retired from the Navy in 1999, she hoped for one concluding armed forces honor: burial at Arlington National Cemetery, her name engraved on 1 of the iconic white headstones.

"I come from a very long line of Navy and Marine Corps folks," Dugan said as she looked out over the rows of grave sites. "My dad was buried hither, my uncle, my aunt, my mom. One of my brothers will be buried here. Nosotros decided every bit a family unit to do that."

Arlington National Cemetery Is Filling Upwards, Then The Regular army May Limit Who Can Be Cached There

Mind to this story by Desiree D'Iorio / The American Homefront Project.

When the time comes, Dugan imagines her flag-draped casket on a horse-fatigued caisson as it travels amid the headstones. A bugler will play taps. A rifle party will fire a salute.

"To me, it'southward a fitting fashion of closing 1'due south career, with award and dignity," the New London, Connecticut native said.

Only Dugan may never realize her vision. The Army is moving forrad with a plan to limit in-ground burials at Arlington. Under the proposal, burials volition be allowed only for service members who received the highest combat awards.

That's considering Arlington is running out of infinite, even though a new expansion project will add over 80,000 new grave sites.

"The expansion, without irresolute eligibility, volition merely accept us to about the 2060's," said Karen Durham-Aguilera, the cemetery's executive director. "So to be open well into the future, which we defined as 150 years, information technology'south both the expansion and the change in eligibility criteria."

She said the latest expansion projection ways the cemetery has now used all of the bachelor land — creatively.

"We also have maximized all the possibilities within [Arlington] literally past taking utilities that were underground, and we put them under roads," Durham-Aguilera said. "I can tell y'all as an engineer, you would almost never do that. But we did it so that nosotros could open up new burying infinite."

Under the Army proposal to cut eligibility, veterans without major gainsay awards can nevertheless be laid to remainder at Arlington, but only if they choose cremation.

"They may be eligible merely above ground, simply they're still eligible here at Arlington National Cemetery until we run out of that higher up ground infinite," Durham-Aguilera said.

But some veterans advocacy groups said the restrictions are unfair.

Mark Belinsky of the Military Officers Association of America said as Arlington fills upward, the authorities should build another similar national cemetery somewhere else where veterans can receive full armed forces honors.

"We're on the edge of seeing another benefit reduced, born on the backs of the military community," Belinsky said. "If the changes occur, information technology's something less. It'due south a reduced benefit."

Belinsky said limiting eligibility to only those veterans who receive Royal Hearts or Silver Stars seems to put a premium on Regular army combat service and isn't fair to veterans of other branches.

"Equally an Army veteran myself, close combat is incredibly dangerous, and does require valor," Belinsky said. "Just so does service in the air, or service underway at body of water, or under the sea, or in a strategic nuclear force, or in a hospital lab fighting COVID."

Arlington National Cemetery Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera points out on a map where the cemetery's newest expansion will add over 80,000 new burial opportunities. Despite the 37 acre expansion, Durham-Aguilera said cuts to eligibility are also required to keep the cemetery operating. — Arlington National Cemetery Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera points out on a map where the cemetery'due south newest expansion will add over 80,000 new burial opportunities. Despite the 37 acre expansion, Durham-Aguilera said cuts to eligibility are too required to keep the cemetery operating.

Dugan, 73, said she hasn't fully come up to grips with the notion that she won't qualify for an Arlington in-ground burial. She said she has religious concerns virtually cremation, plus that'due south not what she wants. She said veterans similar her should be grandfathered then that the changes would merely impact new service members.

"To me, this was a promise," Dugan said. "I hateful, it'south like, sealed with the patriotism and the blood and the sweat."

Dugan supports the idea of a new national cemetery, fifty-fifty though she said Arlington could never be replicated.

Durham-Aguilera, the cemetery director, said veterans practice have other choices, like state military machine cemeteries and more than 150 national cemeteries around the country run past the Department of Veterans Diplomacy. But she said the criteria for burials at Arlington has to change.

"We want to be open," Durham-Aguilera said. "Nosotros want to have that opportunity for that 5-twelvemonth-erstwhile who'south going to raise their manus one 24-hour interval to serve this great nation. So to be able to do that, we need to plan for our hereafter."

She said she expects the Army to finalize the new eligibility rules by the end of the year.