{"id":174050,"date":"2025-09-18T13:19:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=174050"},"modified":"2025-09-18T13:19:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:19:27","slug":"removing-disgraced-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=174050","title":{"rendered":"Removing Disgraced Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Senators seek to make it easier for VA to exhume \u2018disgraced\u2019 veterans<\/h3>\n

By Karen Jowers<\/strong><\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wants to make it easier to exhume and remove the remains of veterans convicted of serious crimes from national cemeteries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burial grounds of our national cemeteries should be reserved for the bravest and most honorable among us,\u201d said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in a statement announcing the bill introduced Tuesday. The legislation would give the Department of Veterans Affairs extended authority to disinter the remains of any \u201cdisgraced veteran\u201d who wouldn\u2019t be deemed eligible for burial under the standards and practices of current law, Cornyn said.<\/p>\n

Under current law, the VA can only reconsider a veteran\u2019s eligibility for burial in national cemeteries for cases dating back to 2013. Families and victims\u2019 advocates who want the VA to disinter someone buried before that time who had committed a serious crime must advocate for a law to be passed directing each individual\u2019s exhumation and removal. That is \u201ccreating unnecessary delays and inequities,\u201d senators stated.<\/p>\n

The senators\u2019 proposal would give the VA retroactive authority dating back to June 18, 1973, when the National Cemeteries Act was signed into law. A law took effect in 1997 that prohibits the burial of veterans who have committed serious crimes in national cemeteries.
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\n\u201cRather than setting an arbitrary cutoff for disinterment requests, this legislation will help ensure that the process is available to everyone,\u201d said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, in the announcement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n

There are at least seven active disinterment petitions, in Hawaii, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Florida and California. Recent examples include the remains of Fernando V. Cota, a convicted rapist and alleged serial murderer, and George E. Siple who was convicted in the 1969 murder of Bertha Smith and died in prison 30 years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators seek to make it easier for VA to exhume \u2018disgraced\u2019 veterans By Karen Jowers A … Removing Disgraced Veterans<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":174051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-pentagon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174050","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\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/174051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}