BrainStuff Classics: When Will Arlington Cemetery Run Out of Space?

The U.S.'s most honored national cemetery is vast, but it only has so much space -- and it's running out. Learn some of the proposed solutions in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/arlington-national-cemetery-is-running-out-space.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this this is a classic brain
Stuff episode. This one dives into the history and potential
future of Arlington National Cemetery, because, after all, a single
cemetery can only hold so many residents. Hey brain Stuff,

(00:25):
Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. Back in eighteen sixty four, the Union
was running out of space to bury Civil War casualties.
Military officials decided to solve the problem by appropriating part
of the Arlington, Virginia plantation that belonged to Mary Anne
Custis Lee, the wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee,
and turning it into a military burial ground. Private William Christman,

(00:47):
a year old soldier from Pennsylvania who died of the
measles before he got a chance to see combat, was
the first to be buried there, according to the Arlington
National Cemetery website. Though neither Robert E. Lee nor his
wife ever tried to turned to the former plantation, their
eldest son eventually filed a lawsuit claiming the land had
been illegally seized. In an eighteen eighty two decision, the

(01:07):
U s Supreme Court agreed, and Congress had to purchase
the property from him for a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars so that the National Cemetery could continue. In the
years that followed, Arlington National Cemetery, which covers six hundred
and twenty four acres that's two hundred and fifty two
hectors across the Potomac River from Washington, d C. Became
perhaps the nation's most hallowed ground, the final resting place

(01:27):
for many of the nation's military heroes, from General Douglas
MacArthur and Private Addi Murphy, the most decorated soldier of
World War Two, two service members killed in the recent
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also buried at Arlington are explorers, astronauts,
and Supreme Court justices. The grave of President John F. Kennedy,
marked with a gas and electric eternal flame that's designed

(01:48):
to remain lighted despite wind and rain, attracted more than
sixteen million mourners in the first three years after his
nineteen sixty three assassination, But the cemetery, which has become
the final resting place for more than four hundred thousand people,
is rapidly filling up with more than seven thousand being
added each year. According to a report prepared by cemetery
officials for Congress in twenty seventeen, there are fewer than

(02:11):
seventy thousand spaces left, and even with the current expansion
project that will add nearly eleven thousand below ground graves
and sixteen thousand, four hundred above ground spots, the cemetery
is projected to be full by the early forties. The
report said, A and C and those it exists to serve,
must therefore confront the reality that at some point in

(02:31):
the future the cemetery will no longer continue to operate
as it does today. Most veterans from the recent wars
in Iraq, Afghanistan and the War on terrorism will not
have the option to be buried at A n C.
Even our heroes who are killed in action or those
who have earned the Medal of Honor will not be
buried at A and C with an approximately three decades
due to a lack of space. At a March eighteen

(02:54):
hearing by the House Armed Services Committee, Karen Durham Aquiallera,
executive director of the Army's National Mill Terry Cemeteries, further
described the predicament she explained in an Army media release.
The current veteran population is over twenty million, the retiree
population is over two million. The total force, both active
and reserve, is over two million. Right now today, we

(03:15):
have around a hundred thousand available burial spaces. We cannot
serve that population. Even a proposed two hundred and seventy
four million dollar expansion that would add another thirty eight
acres that's fifteen hectors along the cemetery southern border, would
only buy an additional decade. That's why officials are now
contemplating changing Arlington's eligibility requirements. Under the present rules, active

(03:39):
duty members of the Armed Services, as well as service
members who have served at least one day of active
duty and stayed in uniform long enough traditionally twenty years
to earn retirement benefits, are eligible for below ground burial.
So are their spouses and children, and so our recipients
of various medals and prisoners of war who died after November.

(04:00):
In addition, active duty and retired members and their spouses
and children, as well as reservists and National Guard members
who die while on active duty or performing full time service,
are eligible for above ground burial in the Columbarium, also
known as the Niche Wall. In the report, army officials
proposed a range of possible rule changes. The most restrictive

(04:21):
option would allow in only those who were killed in
action and or were awarded the Medal of Honor. The
report said this option can be expected to result in
delaying the closure of a C for at least two
centuries unless our nation experiences large scale conflict and higher
numbers of service members killed in action. But such a
move also would exclude the vast majority of military veterans

(04:43):
and their families and seems likely to encounter a pushback.
Girardo of Vila, a deputy director of a veterans association
called the American Legion, says that the issue of what
to do about Arlington is still in the discussion stages,
though clearly Arlington is reaching capacity and something needs to
be done. In a resolution at the American Legions twenty

(05:03):
sixteen convention, the organization urged Congress to step in and
pass a law that would limit Arlington to service members
who die on active duty, winners of the Medal of
Honor and other decorations. World War Two era veterans who
left the service, thirty or more disabled prisoners of war
and career service members. We spoke via email with John
Towell's director of National Security and Foreign Affairs for the

(05:26):
organization Veterans of Foreign Wars. The group is opposed to
severe restrictions on eligibility for interment at Arlington. He said,
we advocate for a solution that will ensure that the
benefits that they earned through their service remain available to them.
Because of this, the VFW cannot support changes that would
take benefits away from veterans and family members who have
already earned them, many of whom have already made plans

(05:49):
to be buried at Arlington. Another option to restricting eligibility
for Arlington would be to create a non contiguous annex
on land around the Armed Forces Retirement Home Campus in
wash Srington, d C. About eight and a half miles
that's thirteen and a half kilometers away. Table said that
much of the site's expanse would be available the United
States Soldiers and Airmen's Home National Cemetery, another burial ground

(06:12):
operated by the Army, already is nearby, but if it
becomes more difficult to be buried at Arlington, veterans still
have the option of being buried at another of the
hundred and thirty five national cemeteries that the National Cemetery
Administration operates in forty States and Puerto Rico. They would
still be entitled to the same ceremony, presidential memorial certificate,
and perpetual care of their graves that those interred at

(06:34):
Arlington received. Today's episode is based on the article Arlington
National Cemetery is running out of space on House to
Works dot Com, written by Patrick J. Keider. Brain Stuff
is production by Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff
works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klein. Pfour

(06:54):
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app,
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