itching carpenter primitive has a favor to ask

[sneakypete]

I wonder how many people are being buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Oct 2 next to their wife who died in the 80's?

@SPYDER

I'm wondering how many wives were buried at Arlington due to THEIR service. Last think I heard you had to a General officer,killed in combat,or been awarded a Silver Star or higher award for valor in combat. I am guessing there would be damn few wives that qualify under those standards.

[sneakypete]

OMG, he's telling the truth - wonder which son it is besides Mike?

Their father was a great man and a war hero:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/world-war-ii-veterans-remember-pilot-bill-renfro-bombed-japan/article_13162d3b-d0b7-5180-807a-382522e8d56e.html

http://ninde.com/tribute/details/2130/Col-William-G-Bill-Renfro/obituary.html

sad that one of his sons is just another illegal alien

@Tess Anderson

You are just assuming he is telling the truth,and that really is his father,not just a name he picked out of a newspaper.

BTW,the man in this link doesn't qualify for burial at Arlington under current regulations. He doesn't  have a Silver Star or higher,was never a POW,and was not a General officer.

He MIGHT be qualified because his wife was allegedly buried there 20+  years ago,though. The regulations may have been different then. I doubt it because Arlington was pretty filled up even then,but I don't know this to be a fact.

[BlueStateSaint]

My wife's great-aunt's cremains were buried at Saratoga National Cemetery last week.  Her husband is a WWII vet, having served as an Ordnance officer in the 102nd Infantry Division in Europe.  He's still going, rather strongly, at 98.  Yes, his cremains will go there as well.  What a nice, peaceful place.  I noticed that as the funeral procession left the Visitors Center on its' way to the Commitment Pavilion, and again as it went to the place of final repose, all of the groundskeepers stopped their mowers, turned towards the road that the procession was on, removed their hats and placed them over their hearts, and bowed their heads.  That measure of respect brought tears to my eyes--I'm tearing up writing this, it was that moving.  The National Parks Service crew there takes their jobs very seriously, and I would expect the same at any other National cemetery.

[sneakypete]

My wife's great-aunt's cremains were buried at Saratoga National Cemetery last week.  Her husband is a WWII vet, having served as an Ordnance officer in the 102nd Infantry Division in Europe.

@BlueStateSaint

AFAIK,what I wrote only applies to the National Cemetery at Arlington. They are just running out of space,and being located in DC means there is none available to buy.

I even heard talk about mandatory cremations to conserve space,but don't know if that applies to the vets who are dying now who qualify for burial there. The only two funerals I went to there were in the last few years,and they were for guys from my unit that had gone MIA in Laos. Obviously there was nothing left but bones when their remains were found. The caskets were full-sized caskets carried by the Honor Guard,though.

I am proud to report that not only guys from the 5th SFG during the VN war attended the ceremonies of these long-dead and mostly forgotten vets,but there were at least a dozen active duty enlisted men and officers serving in the current 5th SFG at Ft.Campbell that took personal leave and drove to Arlington in their dress uniforms to attend these funerals. One VN MoH awardee even attended the first one. He died himself before the 2nd one was found and buried.

SF guys stick together.

Knowing the mindset of the military bureaucracy,there is a strong possibility that there are reserved spaces set aside for MIA's from previous wars,and when these spaces were reserved the current restrictions weren't in place.