From Military.com:
“Wait Time for Burial at
Arlington Can Be Nearly a Year: IG Report “
Military families can wait up to
49 weeks for burials of loved ones at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) because
of the high demand for graveside ceremonies and the increasing mortality rates
of older veterans, according to a Pentagon Inspector General's report. The
system in place for scheduling and conducting burials is suited to the task,
the IG's report states, but the sheer volume of family requests routinely
exceeds "the resources available on a daily basis for the conduct of
burials," including honor guards and chapel availability. In addition, the
advanced age of veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam leads to more
requests for burials than can be handled on a daily basis, states the IG's
report, released last month. Delays in families' completion of required
documents, and decisions regarding the type and timing of burial service, can
also add time between the request and burial, according to the report. As a
result, "burial services at the ANC can result in a 6- to 49-week wait
from the initial contact to the conduct of the burial ceremony," the IG's
report states. As of last September, there were 3,471 burial requests in
process at Arlington -- 3,259 for cremation services and 212 for casketed
services, according to the report. Arlington has the capacity for 30 burials
per day, but the military teams available for Full Military Funeral Honors
services also have responsibilities for other ceremonies in the National
Capital Region and can conduct only about eight per day at ANC, the report
states. The 59-page report examined the operations and management of ANC and
the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery (SAHNC) in Washington, D.C.
-- the two national cemeteries in the nationwide system of military cemeteries.
There are also 36 other cemeteries run by the service branches. The report
found that major reforms at Arlington had corrected the mismanagement that led
to scandals over missing markers and missing remains in 2010. As of late 2018,
Arlington was the final resting place for more than 375,000 decedents and had
space available for 67,000 more, the report states. The IG's office took a
random sample of 553 burials and 145 available spaces and "found no
accountability errors in the records." At SAHNC, the burial site for more
than 14,000 veterans, the report found five errors in a random sample of 290
burials and 62 available spaces. In two cases, the names of the decedents were
not on the grave marker at the corresponding location in the cemetery. In two
other cases, what were coded as empty plots in the database actually contained
decedents. In the fifth case, the location of the decedent in the database did
not match the location of the headstone, according to the report.
^ I can understand why so many veterans
and their families want to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. It is the “main”
National Cemetery in the US. Because of that “demand” there is a long wait to
be buried. I have been to other National Cemeteries across the country and find
them just as nice and just as well-kept as Arlington National Cemetery is and
so having a loved one buried in one of them is just as honorable as being
buried in Arlington. Also if that other National Cemetery is closer to the loved ones home they can visit more often. ^
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