{"id":134891,"date":"2022-12-17T10:24:43","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T15:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=134891"},"modified":"2022-12-17T10:24:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T15:24:43","slug":"potential-changes-to-arlington-national-cemetery-burial-eligibility-could-disqualify-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=134891","title":{"rendered":"Potential changes to Arlington National Cemetery burial eligibility could disqualify most"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Army has recommended changes to the burial eligibility for Arlington National Cemetery. According to Mark Belinsky, the proposed changes would remove eligibility for the majority of those who are currently eligible. However, this would involve inground burial. The space at Arlington National Cemetery is limited, so the Army is looking for ways to extend Arlington’s ability to provide inground burials.<\/p>\n

From NBC 4 Washington:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“The majority of those who are currently eligible would no longer be eligible,” said retired Lt. Col. Mark Belinsky with the Military Officers Association of America.<\/p>\n

Belinsky told the I-Team he continues to hear from worried veterans wondering if they need to make other plans.<\/p>\n

“So, the potential changes really would reduce in-ground burial to a threshold of all the way down to Silver Star and above and Purple Heart,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, a very small population compared to what is eligible today.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Army told the I-Team there was no expected timeline of when new eligibility would be announced. An Arlington spokesperson said the proposed changes are still currently undergoing the “federal rulemaking process.”<\/p>\n

However, there is movement on another front.<\/p>\n

“We always knew that there was a finite amount of space here at Arlington Cemetery,\u201d said Col. Thomas Austin, the director of engineering at Arlington National Cemetery.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s overseeing the Southern Expansion project underway right now which will extend the life of the cemetery.<\/p>\n

“We’re adding a total of 50 acres to the cemetery, which will yield about 80,000 new burial opportunities,” he explained.<\/p>\n

With current burial standards that would keep this cemetery, which means so much to veterans, open for burials until the early 2060s.<\/p>\n

“Well, there is only one Arlington National Cemetery. It is a shrine. It’s an icon for the nation. It’s some of the most sacred ground we have in United States,” Austin said.<\/p>\n

The expansion project is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

Belinsky said changing who’s allowed to be buried there could impact the military at a time when there’s already a recruitment challenge.<\/p>\n

“Inevitably will have to move to a new location, and our proposal is to rather than reduce the benefit, but let’s slowly transition to the next location without reducing the benefit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That’s why he supports another solution: identifying the next Arlington National Cemetery.<\/p>\n

“What’s encouraging is senior leaders are looking at other options to include transforming an existing VA run national cemetery into the next location that will afford full military honors,” Belinsky said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NBC 4 Washington has the story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Army has recommended changes to the burial eligibility for Arlington National Cemetery. According to Mark … Potential changes to Arlington National Cemetery burial eligibility could disqualify most<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arlington-national-cemetary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}