New eligibility rules for burial at Arlington National Cemetery, driven by lack of space, is alarming in differentiating between the quality of military service performed in combat and in non-combat active duty situations. A tier system implicitly states that death incurred by combat troops trumps fatal incidents that may occur on active duty, but not in war.
It’s noteworthy that the first official burial at this hallowed cemetery occurred on May 13, 1864 after the death of William Christman, 20, a Union soldier from Pennsylvania who died of disease. During the Civil War, disease-caused deaths outnumbered combat ones.
According to The Washington Post, proposed rules would end burial eligibility for members of the Reserves, Army or Air National Guard who died in non-combat situations while on active duty.
In addition, the rules change would stop burial eligibility for military retirees but allow to be buried above ground. Elimination of eligibility for veterans of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan seems likely.
The Washington Post reported that currently 22 million active duty members and veterans are eligible for 96,000 spaces at Arlington National Cemetery. Last year, the cemetery opened a 27-acre section that can hold 27,000 remains in close-packed, pre-dug graves, along with a new niche wall and columbaria.
The cemetery also is planning a 37-acre section to be ready by 2025.
While I sympathize with the difficulty in making burial decisions dictated by limited space at the nation’s most sacred cemetery, I strongly question the rationale for excluding members of the armed forces killed, for example, in training accidents in preparation for combat. These accidents are all too frequent, sadly so. Instances of helicopter accidents in the Army and Marine Corps and aerial mishaps involving Navy and Air Force aircraft are well-known.
The powers-to-be at Arlington National Cemetery, property once owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, must understand, as I hope they do, their obligation to the grieving families of service members killed performing non-combat active duty service. They too mourn the death of their sons and daughters killed preparing for combat.
Our military services—and our national cemetery directors—have a implied covenant with our American families. They expect that the nation will pay proper homage to their deceased children, as in offering a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, if so desired. How we as a country express our gratitude and condolences to a family is indicative of how we value their service.
Non-combat deaths, which might include combat veterans, are, in some ways, tougher to accept than combat fatalities. Our nation loses dedicated soldiers and airmen who never will get the chance to serve overseas against nations that currently nurture and support terrorism, and for which they trained.
Many years ago, the US Army, due to budget cuts, reduced its support of veteran burials at state cemeteries by providing a tape recording of “Taps,” a bugle call played at military funerals, instead of providing an honor guard. Families were incensed. They contacted local state delegates and senators to complain about what they viewed as a violation of an unwritten contract to provide a proper failure to their loved ones.
Elected political officials then approached the Maryland National Guard and demanded that it establish an honor guard for funerals of all veterans in Maryland cemeteries. After the legislature funded honor guard detachments throughout the state, the Guard provided a noble service to families. Complaints diminished.
If the Arlington National Cemetery must continue to acquire land in congested Arlington County in northern Virginia to accommodate not only those killed in combat on active duty, but those who die in training accidents and illness suffered in preparation for combat, then do so with urgency.
Words written by Horace Lorenzo Trim to accompany “Taps” seem appropriate: “Sun has set, shadows come, /Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds/Always true to the promise that they made.”
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.
Michael H C McDowell says
Well put. I published this very personal opinion article in the summer, in The Washington Post. My son now rests with honor at Arlington:
My son died in a military training accident. Why do they continue to happen?
By Michael H.C. McDowell
July 11, 2019 at 3:50 p.m. EDT
Michael H.C. McDowell is a recent member of the advisory board of the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina.
On May 9, my wife and I lost our only child, H. Conor McDowell — just turned 24, a newly promoted Marine first lieutenant, days away from being engaged to marry his girlfriend, Kathleen Bourque.
He was killed instantly when his light armored vehicle (LAV) turned belly up, crushing him, as he led a patrol in challenging terrain at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. Conor pushed his gunner to safety but did not have time to save himself.
Conor is just one of too many young people who are dying, needlessly, in so-called training accidents in our military. Over the past year, nearly four times the number of troops have been killed in training rather than in combat.
Vehicle rollovers seem particularly avoidable. Examples we have found, dating just from mid-April:
Joshua Braica, 29, a Marine staff sergeant, father of a 7-month-old boy, died April 14, less than 24 hours after his dune-buggy-like, doorless MRZR vehicle tipped over at Pendleton, crushing his spine. Our son died May 9. Jacob Hess , 34, an Army staff sergeant, died at Fort Polk, La., in a Humvee rollover on May 15. Christopher Morgan , 22, a rising senior at the U.S. Military Academy, died June 6 in another rollover, this time in a five-ton truck transporting two dozen cadets to a training area. Hans Sandoval-Pereyra, 21, a Marine lance corporal who came to the United States from Bolivia during elementary school , was killed when his Humvee rolled over as he trained in Northern Australia in May. In Alaska on June 14, paratrooper Marquise Elliott , 25 and recently engaged to be married, was killed when his Humvee flipped onto its side.
That’s six rollover deaths in 62 days.
Why do these “accidents” continue to happen?
Here’s some background: The vehicles, or “vics,” come back from Iraq and Afghanistan worn out; they are retrofitted or sometimes cannibalized to repair other vehicles, and they often break down. Troops in training can find themselves on difficult territory in potentially unreliable machines.
Range safety officers usually monitor training paths in advance. Is this being done regularly, and if so, how come the 18-foot hole, apparently concealed by tall grasses and weeds at Pendleton, was unknown to our son before his LAV hit the deep ditch and overturned?
How lengthy and how rigorous is current training for drivers? Or for gunners and other specialists? Are we putting our young men and women into these tough positions too soon, and thus endangering their comrades?
What is an acceptable risk in training? Is a 4-to-1 ratio in training to combat deaths acceptable? Is that a wise spending of “blood and treasure,” to use a brutal cliche?
And if it is not wise, not acceptable, is it not wrong to call these tragedies “accidents”?
Here is a key passage from our son Conor’s handwritten journal, dated Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018, during a training operation at Fort Irwin, Calif.:
“Blue 1 Platoon had a rollover. No injuries. LAV dropped 8 feet onto turret, then onto side. 2 medical vics, 6 recovery vics going to site of rollover. Marines will be assessed and cared for. LAV will be left in place until daylight. Pictures will be taken as there will have to be an investigation. 7 Marines were on board. My job just got a lot more serious. Time to monitor the net for information requests. They’ll need a hoist. This isn’t the end of the world but we got really lucky. No injuries involved. . . . This is the second Charlie Company rollover in two months. One of the Marines was in both rollovers. . . . It’s a miracle no one was killed. Sounds like someone got fired. The tone in Chain of Command has sombered somewhat. This is a reminder that at any moment, through careless action, even in training, Marines can die. . . . all of Charlie Platoon’s commanders have now rolled over a vehicle.”
Five months later, Conor himself would perish in a rollover.
Maryland’s senators, Democrats Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, have written to the Navy secretary asking for a serious investigation into all rollovers. The Marine commanding general of Pendleton is conducting an inquiry. But the military must not be allowed to act as a judge in its own cause.
What is needed, urgently, is for Congress to insist on a truly independent, rigorous Government Accountability Office examination into rollover deaths. Until that is done, Congress must force the military to take temporary measures to lower the rate of fatalities.
The Pentagon will make the tired “comparing apples and oranges” argument — and yes, different vehicles are involved in these tragedies, and yes, they happen on different training grounds. But apples and oranges are . . . fruit. These are our troops. Our military leaders and our elected representatives have a responsibility to protect them now.
Soon, the National Defense Authorization Act will be up for reauthorization; Sen. Cardin has submitted an amendment mandating a serious inquiry, and it is gaining Republican support.
Meanwhile, there will be more accidents. And more young men and women in uniform will almost certainly die.