Ceremonies like Changing the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier add to the cemetery’s high- caliber reputation.
The addition of columbarium courts expanded burial eligibility in the 1980s, but they could fill up a few years before in-ground spots do.
The Millennium expansion project would add nearly 30,000 burial and niche spaces at Arlington National Cemetery.
“Each set of options presents po- tential benefits, risks, and trade-offs,” the document states. “While some options can be implemented relatively quickly, others will take far longer.” This isn’t the first time the national shrine has faced capacity woes. The Army currently is in the first phase of a 38-acre southern expansion that will add 25,000 new burial spots near the Air Force Memorial. The project involves realigning a highway and is projected to cost $274 million. Eligibility requirements also have changed six times since the cemetery first opened 153 years ago in 1864. Fifty years ago, for example, burial was limited to active duty deaths, re- tirees, or Medal of Honor recipients. “In 1967, Arlington National Cemetery was rapidly running out of burial space, and the U.S. was en- gaged in armed conflict in Vietnam,”
58 MILITARY OFFICER MAY 2017
says Steve Smith, a spokesperson for the cemetery. “Eligibility was [then] expanded in 1980 due to the opening of the columbarium courts, which al- lowed for aboveground inurnment of cremated remains.” Space in the aboveground colum- barium courts could be exhausted in 2040, three years before in-ground spots are expected to be filled. Speer’s report is meant to launch “the beginning of an important na- tional dialogue,” the memo states. Public outreach — including feed- back from veterans’ groups — will be important throughout the deci- sion-making process. With the final recommendations
yet to be released, the cemetery hasn’t yet received any official feed- back from veterans’ organizations, but Smith says most anecdotal feed- back reflects a widespread belief
that burial should be guaranteed, at a minimum, to those killed in action or Medal of Honor recipients. Clamping down on burial eligibil-
ity has proven unpopular with MOAA members — especially if it means retirees aren’t guaranteed a resting spot. Of the more than 6,800 people who took MOAA’s survey on the issue, more than two-thirds say additional land should be procured before re- stricting eligibility. Suddenly prohibiting retirees from burial at Arlington to save space for future generations would be a “slap in the face,” Cahoon says. “Many of those retirees served in combat, served full careers in the mili- tary, or died as the result of combat wounds or diseases,” he says. Col. Dan Merry, USAF (Ret), vice
president of MOAA’s government re- lations team, says he’d like to see the
PHOTOS: CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT, J.D. LEIPOLD/U.S. ARMY; ANTON IVANOV/SHUTTERSTOCK; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION TIM1965, PHOTO U.S. ARMY
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