Arlington National Cemetery

The gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery are marked by U.S. flags each Memorial Day.

Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee, a great grand-daughter of Martha Washington. The cemetery is situated directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.. It is served by the Arlington Cemetery station on the Blue Line of the Washington Metro system.

In an area of 624 acres (2.53 km2), veterans and military casualties from each of the nation's wars are interred in the cemetery, ranging from the American Civil War through to the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were reinterred after 1900.

Arlington National Cemetery and United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery are administered by the Department of the Army. The other national cemeteries are administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs or by the National Park Service. Arlington House (Custis-Lee Mansion) and its grounds are administered by the National Park Service as a memorial to Lee.

History

Military funeral procession in hill National Cemetery, July, 1967

Arlington House

George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington, acquired the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802, and began construction of Arlington House. The estate was passed down to Custis' and his wife's (Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis) only surviving adult child Mary Anna Custis Lee who was married to Robert E. Lee, a West Point graduate and United States Army officer. When Fort Sumter was forced to surrender at the beginning of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln offered Lee command of the federal army. Lee demurred, wanting to see if his native Virginia would decide to secede.

When Virginia announced its decision, Lee resigned his commission and took command of the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia, later becoming commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. He quickly established himself as an able commander, defeating a series of Union generals, until his final defeat and surrender at the McLean House. Because of this decision and subsequent performance, Lee was regarded as disloyal by most Union officers. The decision was made to appropriate a portion of Arlington as a graveyard for mostly Union dead.

American military cemeteries developed from the duty of commanders on the frontier and in battle to care for their casualties. When Civil War casualties overflowed hospitals and burial grounds near Washington, D.C., Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs proposed on June 15, 1864 that 200 acres (0.81 km2) of the Robert E. Lee family property at Arlington be taken for a cemetery.

The government had acquired Arlington at tax sale in 1864 for $26,800. Mrs. Lee had not appeared in person, but rather had sent an agent, attempting to timely pay the $92.07 in property taxes assessed the estate. The government turned away her agent, refusing to accept the tendered payment. In 1874, Custis Lee, heir under his grandfather's will passing the estate in trust to his mother, sued the United States claiming ownership of Arlington. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Lee's favor in United States v. Lee, deciding that Arlington had been confiscated without due process, Congress returned the estate to him. The next year Custis Lee sold it back to the government for $150,000 at a signing ceremony with Robert Todd Lincoln, Secretary of War.

Military burials were previously done at the United States Soldiers' National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., but space was filling up. "We pray for those who lost their lives.", Meigs wrote, "The grounds about the mansion are admirably adapted to such a use." Burials had in fact begun at Arlington before the ink was even blotted on Meigs's proposal.

The southern portion of the land now occupied by the cemetery was used during and after the Civil War as a settlement for freed slaves. More than 1,100 freed slaves were given land at Freedman's Village by the government, where they farmed and lived during and after the Civil War. They were turned out in 1888 when the estate was repurchased by the government and dedicated as a military installation.

President Herbert Hoover conducted the first national Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, on May 30, 1929.

Sections

Nurses Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is divided into 70 sections, with some sections in the southeast portion of the cemetery reserved for future expansion. Section 60, in the southeast part of the cemetery, is the burial ground for military personnel killed in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. In 2005, Arlington National Cemetery acquired 12 acres (49,000 m2) of additional land from the National Park Service, along with 17 acres (69,000 m2) from the Department of Defense that was part of Fort Myer and 44 acres (180,000 m2) that is the site of the Navy Annex.

Section 21, also known as the Nurses Section, is the area of Arlington National Cemetery where many nurses are buried. The Nurses Memorial is located there. In the cemetery, there is a Confederate section with graves of soldiers of the Confederate States of America and a Confederate Memorial. All Confederate headstones are peaked rather than rounded. In Section 27, there are buried more than 3,800 former slaves, called "Contrabands" during the Civil War. Their headstones are designated with the word "Civilian" or "Citizen".

Grave markers, niches and headstones

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs oversees the National Cemetery Administration's orders for placement of inscriptions and faith emblems at no charge to the estate of the deceased, submitted with information provided by the next of kin that is placed on upright marble headstones or columbarium niche covers. There are 39 authorized faith emblems available for placement to represent the deceased's faith. See also, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs webpage "Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones" and "Markers" Markers

Prior to 2007, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs did not allow the use of the pentacle as an "emblem of belief" on tombstones in military cemeteries. This policy was changed following an out-of-court settlement on 23 April following a series of lawsuits against the VA. See Patrick Stewart (soldier).

Privately-purchased markers used to be permitted in the cemetery, but since 2001 the areas that the cemetery permitted such markers in are filled. Nevertheless, the older sections of the cemetery have many diverse private markers placed prior to 2001, including artillery pieces.

Tomb of the Unknowns

The Tomb of the Unknowns

The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It stands on top of a hill overlooking Washington, D.C.

One of the more popular sites at the Cemetery, the tomb is made from Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It consists of seven pieces, with a total weight of 79 short tons (72 metric tons). The tomb was completed and opened to the public April 9, 1932, at a cost of $48,000.

It was initially named the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier." Other unknown servicemen were later entombed there, and it became known as the "Tomb of the Unknowns", though it has never been officially named. The soldiers entombed there are:

• Unknown Soldier of World War I, interred November 11, 1921. President Warren G. Harding presided.
• Unknown Soldier of World War II, interred May 30, 1958. President Dwight D. Eisenhower presided.
• Unknown Soldier of the Korean War, also interred May 30, 1958. President Dwight Eisenhower presided again, Vice President Richard Nixon acted as next of kin.
• Unknown Soldier of the Vietnam War, interred May 28, 1984. President Ronald Reagan presided. The remains of the Vietnam Unknown were disinterred, under the authority of President Bill Clinton, on May 14, 1998, and were identified as those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie, whose family had him reinterred near their home in St. Louis, Missouri. It has been determined that the crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns that contained the remains of the Vietnam Unknown will remain empty.

The Tomb of the Unknowns has been perpetually guarded since July 2, 1937, by the U.S. Army. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment ("The Old Guard") began guarding the Tomb April 6, 1948.

Arlington Memorial Amphitheater

Arlington National Cemetery Amphitheater

The Tomb of the Unknowns is part of the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. The Memorial Amphitheater has hosted state funerals and Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. Ceremonies are also held for Easter. About 5,000 people attend these holiday ceremonies each year. The structure is mostly built of Imperial Danby marble from Vermont. The Memorial Display room, between the amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknowns, uses Botticino stone, imported from Italy. The amphitheater was the result of a campaign by Ivory Kimball to construct a place to honor America's soldiers. Congress authorized the structure March 4, 1913. Woodrow Wilson laid the cornerstone for the building on October 15, 1915. The cornerstone contained 15 items including a Bible and a copy of the Constitution.

Before the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater was completed in 1921, important ceremonies were held at what is now known as the "Old Amphitheater." This structure sits where Robert E. Lee once had his gardens. The amphitheater was built in 1868 under the direction of General John A. Logan. Gen. James A. Garfield was the featured speaker at the Decoration Day dedication ceremony, May 30, 1868. The amphitheater has an encircling colonnade with a latticed roof that once supported a web of vines. The amphitheater has a marble dais, known as "the rostrum", which is inscribed with the U.S. national motto found on the Great Seal of the United States, E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one"). The amphitheater seats 1,500 people and has hosted speakers such as William Jennings Bryan.

Memorials

Remembering the Maine: The memorial to the USS Maine.

Cenotaph memorial honoring the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger

Due to the ever-decreasing space at the cemetery, and that the nature of memorials is to take up space that could otherwise be used to bury an eligible servicemember, the army requires a joint or concurrent resolution from Congress before it will place new memorials onto the cemetery grounds. Still, there are several memorials on cemetery grounds, and groups regularly seek to use the ever-diminishing grounds for new memorials.

Near the Tomb of the Unknowns stands a memorial to the 266 men who lost their lives aboard the USS Maine. The memorial is built around a mast salvaged from the Maine's wreckage. The USS Maine Memorial served as the temporary resting place for foreign heads of state or government, Manuel L. Quezon of the Philippines and Ignacy Jan Paderewski of Poland, who died in exile in the United States during World War II.

The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial was dedicated on May 20, 1986, in memory of the crew of flight STS-51-L, who died during launch on January 28, 1986. Transcribed on the back of the stone is the text of the John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem High Flight. Although many remains were identified and returned to the families for private burial, some were not, and were laid to rest under the marker. Two of the crew members, Scobee and Smith, are buried in Arlington, as well. There is a similar memorial to those who died when the Shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003, dedicated on the first anniversary of the disaster. Astronauts Laurel Clark, David Brown and Michael Anderson are also buried in Arlington.

On a knoll just south of Arlington House, with views of the Washington Monument and Capitol, is a memorial to Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the architect who laid out the city of Washington. His remains lie below a marble memorial incised with his plan for the city. L'Enfant envisioned a grand neoclassical capital city for the young republic that would rival the capitals of European monarchies.

The Cairn, the Lockerbie memorial is a memorial to the 270 killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The memorial is made up of 270 stones, one for each person killed in the disaster. In section 64, there is a memorial to the 184 victims of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon. The memorial takes the shape of a pentagon, and lists the names of all the victims that were killed.

The noted composer, arranger, trombonist and big band leader Maj. Alton Glenn Miller of the U.S. Army Air Forces has been missing in action since December 15, 1944. Miller was eligible for a memorial headstone in Arlington National Cemetery as a service member who died on active duty whose remains were not recoverable. At his daughter's request, a stone was placed in Memorial Section H, Number 464-A on Wilson Drive in Arlington National Cemetery in April 1992.

There are only two mausoleums located within the confines of the cemetery. One is for the family of General Nelson Appleton Miles located in Section 3 and the other one belongs to the family of General Thomas Crook Sullivan and it is located in Section 1.

There is a Commonwealth Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the USA who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during the Korean War and the two world wars.

The Women in Military Service for America Memorial can be found at the Ceremonial Entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.

On May 15, 1997, after more than two decades of denying the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos during the Vietnam War conflict, the U.S. government officially acknowledged this once covert war, honoring its U.S. and Laos Hmong veterans with the opening of the Laos Memorial on the Arlington National Cemetery grounds, along a path between the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Burial procedures

Arlington House flag flying at half-staff. The flag is lowered during interments.

The flags in Arlington National Cemetery are flown at half-staff from a half hour before the first funeral until a half hour after the last funeral each day. Funerals are normally conducted five days a week, excluding weekends.

Funerals, including interments and inurnments, average between 27-30 per day. The cemetery conducts approximately 6,900 burials each year.

With more than 300,000 people interred there, Arlington National Cemetery has the second-largest number of people buried of any national cemetery in the United States. The largest of the 130 national cemeteries is the Calverton National Cemetery, on Long Island, near Riverhead, New York, which conducts more than 7,000 burials each year.

In addition to in-ground burial, Arlington National Cemetery also has one of the larger columbaria for cremated remains in the country. Four courts are currently in use, each with 5,000 niches. When construction is complete, there will be nine courts with a total of 50,000 niches; capacity for 100,000 remains. Any honorably discharged veteran is eligible for inurnment in the columbarium, if s/he served on active duty at some point in her/his career (other than for training).

Notable civilians

• Julian Bartley, Sr. (54) and his son Jay Bartley (20), killed together in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi
• Harry Blackmun, Thurgood Marshall, William O. Douglas and Potter Stewart, four justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Leslie Coffelt, Secret Service member killed fighting off would-be-assassins of President Harry S. Truman in the 1950 assassination attempt at Blair House
• George Washington Parke Custis, founder of Arlington Plantation, grandson of Martha Washington, step-grandson of President George Washington, father to Mary Anna Custis Lee.
• Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, wife to George Washington Parke Custis, daughter of William Fitzhugh and Ann Bolling Randolph Fitzhugh, mother to Mary Anna Custis Lee.
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former First Lady and widow of John F. Kennedy
• Phyllis Kirk, famous TV and film actress, alongside her husband.
• James Parks, freedman, the only person buried at Arlington Cemetery who was born on the grounds.
• Manuel Quezon (1878–1944), President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935–1944), later transferred to a cemetery in Manila
• Mary Randolph, first person to be buried at Arlington Plantation, descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, cousin to Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis.
• Marie Teresa Rios, author of Fifteenth Pelican, basis for The Flying Nun television show.
• John Gibson and Jacob Chestnut, United States Capitol Police officers killed in the 1998 Capitol shooting attack
• Leslie Sherman, student killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre (her parents Holly and Anthony Sherman are both veterans and will be buried next to their daughter).[35]

Whether or not they were wartime service members, U.S. presidents are eligible to be buried at Arlington, since they oversaw the armed forces as commanders-in-chief.

Four state funerals have been held at Arlington: those of Presidents William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy, that of General John J. Pershing, and that of U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Military burials

As of May 2006, there were 367 Medal of Honor recipients buried in Arlington National Cemetery, nine of whom are Canadians.

• Creighton Abrams (1914–1974), United States Army General who commanded U.S. military operations in the Vietnam War, 1968–1972
• Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold (1886–1950), first (and so far only) General of the Air Force (5-Stars)
• Gordon Beecher (1904–1973), United States Navy Vice Admiral and composer
• Jeremy Michael Boorda (1939–1996), US Navy Admiral and Chief of Naval Operations
• Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (1912–1988), World War II Marine Corps fighter ace, Medal of Honor recipient, and commander of VMF-214, the "Black Sheep Squadron" (basis for the 1970s TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep)
• Omar Nelson Bradley (1893–1981), commanded the 12th Army Group in Europe during World War II, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the last living five star general.
• Ruby G. Bradley (1907–2002), Colonel and, with 34 medals, one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history
• Alfred Winsor Brown (1885-1938), World War I Navy officer and Governor of Guam
• Miles Browning (1897–1954), World War I and World War II Navy officer and hero of the Battle of Midway
• Frank Buckles (1901–2011), last known American veteran of World War I.
• Omar Bundy (1861–1940), World War I Major General who commanded the 1st Brigade, 1st Expeditionary Division in France, awarded the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre.
• John Allen Campbell (1835–1880), Brevet Brigadier General; American Civil War, first Governor of Wyoming Territory in 1869 and Third Assistant Secretary of State.
• Roger Chaffee (1935–1967) and Gus Grissom (1926–1967), astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire (Edward White was buried at West Point)
• Claire Lee Chennault (1893–1958), was a United States military aviator who commanded the "Flying Tigers" during World War II.
• Bertram Tracy Clayton (1862–1918), Congressman from New York, killed in action in 1918
• Charles Austin Coolidge (1844–1926), Brigadier General, served in Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War and the China Relief Expedition.
• William P. Cronan (1879-1929), US Naval officer and 19h Naval Governor of Guam.
• Scott Crossfield (1921–2006), US Naval aviator and test pilot, first to fly at twice the speed of sound; played a major role in the design and development of the North American X-15.
• Louis Cukela (1888–1956), Marine Corps Major, awarded two Medals of Honor for same act in World War I
• Jane Delano (1862–1919), Director, Army Nursing Corps
• Sir John Dill (1881–1944), British Diplomat and Field Marshal
• William "Wild Bill" Donovan (1883–1959), Major General and Chief of the OSS during World War II
• Abner Doubleday (1819–1893), Civil War general credited with inventing baseball
• Clarence Ransom Edwards (1860–1931), commanded the 26th "Yankee" Division in World War I
• Frank J. Fletcher (1885–1973), Admiral, U.S. Navy, World War II; operational commander at Coral Sea and Midway; awarded Medal of Honor.
• Nathan Bedford Forrest III (1905–1943) Brigadier General of the United States Army Air Forces, and a great-grandson of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. First American general to be killed in action in Europe during World War II
• Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and Michael Strank: three of the six servicemen immortalized in Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (Strank was killed in action just days after the photo was taken)
• John Gibbon (1827–1896), Brigadier General, Union Army, Civil War, most notably commander of 2nd Division, US II Corps that repelled Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
• David Haskell Hackworth (1930–2005), Colonel and most decorated American soldier
• William "Bull" Halsey (1882–1959), World War II Navy five-star Fleet Admiral
• Grace Hopper (1906–1992), rear admiral, pioneering computer scientist
• Kara Spears Hultgreen (1965–1994), the first female naval carrier-based fighter pilot
• James Jabara (1923–1966), the first American jet ace in history. He's credited with shooting down 15 enemy aircraft during aerial combat.
• Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. (1920–1978), USAF, first African American four-star General in the U.S. Armed Forces
• Philip Kearny (1815–1862), "fearless" one-armed cavalry general killed at Chantilly during the Civil War
• Wlodzimierz B. Krzyzanowski (1824–1887), Polish military leader and Civil War Union general
• Mark Matthews (1894–2005), last surviving Buffalo Soldier
• Francis Lupo (1895–1918), Private killed in France during World War I; holds the distinction of possibly being the longest U.S. service member missing in action to be found (1918–2003)
• John S. McCain, Sr. (1884–1945), USN Admiral - grandfather of Senator John McCain and father of McCain Jr.
• John S. McCain, Jr. (1911–1981), USN Admiral - father of Senator John McCain
• Henry Pinckney McCain (1861–1941), US Army officer and Adjutant Generals of the U.S. Army; Uncle to McCain Sr, grand-uncle of McCain Jr
• David McCampbell (1910–1996), Captain, the US Navy's top World War II Ace with 34 kills
• Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816–1892), Brigadier General. Arlington National Cemetery was established by Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, who commanded the garrison at Arlington House and appropriated the grounds on June 15, 1864, for use as a military cemetery. His intention was to render the house uninhabitable should the Lee family ever attempt to return. A stone and masonry burial vault in the rose garden, 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, and containing the remains of 2,111 Civil War dead, was among the first monuments to Union dead erected under Meigs' orders. Meigs himself was later buried within 100 yards (91 m) of Arlington House with his wife, father and son.
• Glenn Miller (1904–1944), Major and well known band leader who disappeared over the English Channel while flying to Paris. His body was never found, but he has a memorial headstone.
• Audie Murphy (1924–1971), U.S. Army, Recipient of the Medal of Honor, and the most decorated U.S. Soldier during World War II.
• Edward Ord (1818–1883), Major General, Army of the James during the Appomattox Campaign, Union Army, Civil War.
• George S. Patton IV (1923–2004), Major General of the Army and son of famed WWII General, George S. Patton
• John J. Pershing (1860–1948), America's first General of the Armies, commanded American forces in World War I
• David Dixon Porter (1813–1891), Admiral, Union Navy, Civil War, most notable as the Union naval commander during the Vicksburg Campaign, a turning point of the war, which split the Confederacy in two.
• Francis Gary Powers (1929–1977), American U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960
• John Aaron Rawlins (1831–1869), Civil War general, chief of staff and later Secretary of War to Ulysses S. Grant
• Alfred C. Richmond (1902–1984), Commandant of the United States Coast Guard
• Hyman G. Rickover (1900–1986), father of the Nuclear Navy
• Matthew Ridgway (1895–1993), WWII and Korea General, Chief of Staff of the Army
• William S. Rosecrans (1819–1898), Major General, Army of the Cumberland, Union Army, Civil War
• William T. Ryder (1913–1992), Brigadier General, first American paratrooper
• Thomas Selfridge (1882–1908), First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane
• Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), commanding general, Union Army, Civil War
• Daniel E. Sickles (1819–1914), Major General, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, Union Army, Civil War. Also served as U.S. Minister to Spain and as U.S. Representative from New York
• Robert F. Sink Lt. General, and former Regimental Commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, portrayed by Vietnam Veteran, and retired Marine Captain Dale Dye in the HBO/BBC miniseries Band of Brothers.
• Walter Bedell Smith (1895–1961), General, U.S. Army, World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower's Chief of Staff during Eisenhower's tenure at SHAEF and Director of the CIA from 1950 to 1953. Also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1948.
• Lauri Törni aka Larry Thorne (1919–1965), Finnish soldier who served in the US special forces and was a World War II veteran; called "soldier who fought under three flags (Finland, Germany and USA)". Reputedly the only former Waffen-SS member to be buried at the cemetery.
• Matt Urban (1919–1995), Colonel, U.S Army, most highly decorated soldier for valor in the history of the US Military
• Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (1883–1953), Major General, hero of Bataan and Corregidor; highest ranking POW in World War II
• Robert Webb (1922–2002), B-17 Flying Fortress pilot
• Joseph Wheeler (1836–1906), served as a Major General for two opposing forces: the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American War
• Orde Charles Wingate (1903–1944), British major general, creator and commander of the Chindits
• Clark H. Woodward (1877–1968), Vice Admiral, served in five wars: the Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Boxer Rebellion and both World Wars
• Charles Young (1864–1922), first African-American Lieutenant colonel in the US Army

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