Posted on 01/03/2016 1:57:22 PM PST by Kaslin
Another one of those “clean out the basket” stories from while I was away comes to us from the hallowed ground of Arlington National Cemetery. There was a quiet change made to the guidelines for interment there roughly one year ago which impacts a small but rightfully vocal group of citizens and their families. It involves the few remaining members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (or WASPs) from World War II. It seems that the Army is no longer accepting the remains of the female pilots for burial alongside the Honored Dead who rest there. (Fox News)
The ashes of World War II veteran Elaine Harmon are sitting in a closet in her daughter’s home, where they will remain until they can go to what her family says is her rightful resting place: Arlington National Cemetery.
Harmon piloted aircraft in World War II under a special program, Women Airforce Service Pilots, that flew noncombat missions to free up male pilots for combat. Granted veteran status in 1977, the WASPs have been eligible to have their ashes placed at Arlington with military honors since 2002.
But earlier this year, then-Secretary of the Army John McHugh reversed course and ruled WASPs ineligible.
After Harmon died in April at age 95, her daughter, Terry Harmon, 69, of Silver Spring, Maryland, was dismayed to learn that the Army had moved to exclude WASPs. She said her mother had helped lead the effort to gain recognition for WASPs.
I’m not sure what McHugh was thinking when he made this move, or more to the point, how he explained it at the time. I suppose there could technically be an argument to make saying that the WASPs weren’t officially part of the military and didn’t fly combat missions so they should somehow be classified differently, but it’s a weak and rather offensive one. True, they were defined as a “paramilitary” unit and they were specifically assigned non-combat missions to free up the men to fly in combat. But as has been documented repeatedly, they were granted veteran status nearly forty years ago and clearly aided the war effort in a direct fashion which involved flying military aircraft.
I rather doubt that McHugh was doing this because he’s secretly part of the He Man Woman Hater’s club, though the decision casts him in a very bad light. More likely, he was examining the quickly diminishing available space for burials at Arlington and making a ham handed attempt at finding ways to make the land stretch further. That excuse probably shouldn’t be given too much weight, though, since there are barely 100 WASPs left alive today.
The land issue at Arlington isn’t going to go away no matter how this fracas is resolved. Some relief was achieved last year when space for more than 50,000 additional urns of ashes was added and 27 acres to the north of the current fields was opened up. That new real estate will allow for 30,000 additional graves, which is a great start, but we are still burying an average of 7,000 veterans per year there so it’s far from a permanent solution. Also, just getting those 27 acres was a battle because people were fighting against having some of the old growth trees in the area taken down.
Arlington is an actual problem in search of a solution and I believe one can and must be found. It’s going to take a combination of willingness and sacrifice on the part of both the government and private citizens, but a path can surely be carved outward to extend the grounds of Arlington… not through government fiat, but the good will of a nation willing to offer up the proper honors to our heroes. If we can’t solve this one then the nation may be culturally past the point of no return.
Oh... those WASPs.
Bad enough, but: The title had me believe that Arlington had been completely AA’d to the exclusion of all white veterans.
Here are the requirements.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/eligib.htm
My sister’s Father-In-Law is buried there along with our uncle.
I meet the requirements but will probably be buried at the Sandhills Veterans Cemetery where my F-I-L in buried.
I guess this got him in:
Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army in June 1951, signing up for an optional four-year term, which was shortened to the minimum two years after his father intervened.[10] Following basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, he requested assignment to Fort Holabird in Maryland for Army Intelligence training, but was dropped after a few weeks without explanation.[10] He went to Camp Gordon in Georgia for training in the Military Police Corps.[10] In June 1952, Kennedy was assigned to the honor guard at SHAPE headquarters in Paris, France.[1][10] His father’s political connections ensured that he was not deployed to the ongoing Korean War.[1][14] While stationed in Europe, he traveled extensively on weekends and climbed the Matterhorn in Switzerland.[15] He was discharged after 21 months in March 1953 as a private first class.
—wikipedia
bingo!
But the 'rules' say no female piloted drones allowed in the DC area...
So an enlisted submariner who survived depth charge attacks probably would not qualify (because only the Captain gets medals), but a civilian ferry pilot should?
You have to read the article and not just go by the title, or do you judge a book by it’s cover? I don’t think so.
I will be there someday. 4th section of the Columbarium bottom row. Reserved in 1997 when my husband’s ashes were placed there. The area for ashes is now a huge long area around the border of the cemetery. Proves they CAN build a wall!!There is a lot more border that can be used too...
I read the article. I was laughing at how the headline threw me a curve. Anything is believable these days.
I have seen that information you posted, and that is a great source. (Note: I do not believe those statistics are only for the Army Air Corps, I believe they encompass the entire US Military) What really blows me away is the average of 170 planes lost a day that were lost in that time frame.
But as for the risks faced by WASPS compared to the Army Air Corps and their eligibility to be buried in Arlington, we will have to disagree on this.
WASPS did NOT fly aircraft to combat zones. They were used for ferrying planes in the continental United States and rarely to Canada.
You said they more than put their lives on the line just as much as the men in the Army Air Corps did, and I could not disagree more vigorously with that statement. Men flying airmail for the government in the Twenties and Thirties were arguably at the same risk level as men in the Army Air Corps flying combat missions over Germany in 1943, and probably getting killed at somewhat the same rate, and they never got buried at Arlington. Flying was still, at that time, an inherently risky business, but there were many more tasks throughout industry that were as dangerous or even more dangerous.
One might say they put themselves at the same risk that male ferry pilots were at, which would be true. But as far as I know, men who worked as ferry pilots for Consolidated or other manufacturers never were eligible for burial in military cemeteries.
But that misses the point completely. At a fundamental level, I believe members of our armed forces deserve, and should get special consideration on many different levels. Both support while in the service, special care provided for injuries of all types when they are out of the service, and special treatment when they die, both in and out of active service. (Note that I am not talking ALL military members, just those who have been exposed to combat in a time of conflict.)
My father was never shot at, but was on a destroyer in the Pacific at the end of WWII, and served on a destroyer in combat situations in Korea and was on another destroyer as XO off Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so while I understand some may think he shouldn’t be there, I would disagree. I don’t believe I should be buried there, and rightfully so, since I was active duty in a peacetime Navy. Serving on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in a peacetime Navy is indeed hazardous as are many of the tasks carried out by a peacetime Army. But being a welder in a shipyard in wartime conditions or ferrying combat planes from Michigan to California or New York are hazardous as well. None of those jobs mentioned in either a peacetime military or a wartime economy should be eligible, and rightfully so, in my opinion.
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Yer just tryin’ to piss me off, aren’t ya?
Nah, just sharing your sense of outrage. He deserved the death penalty and got honors.
I don’t know why you want to be so pissy about it because you sure didn’t read the link I posted.
“...1980 - Inurnment in the Columbarium Complex was extended to all honorably discharged veterans...”
I wish you would not do that to a friend...Last I knew that was a serious NO-NO and might cause them severe penalties.
Are you sure they will not accept your ashes?
I I am not mistaken I think they are called Waves in the navy?
LOL, I figured that...I know people who poke me about that kind of thing for their own entertainment!
I’m married to a WASP. She doesn’t fly. I think that acronym is all caps, LOL.
>>I don’t know why you want to be so pissy about it because you sure didn’t read the link I posted.
I read it. Just missed that minor part. I was reading the burial requirements from 2002.
>>“...1980 - Inurnment in the Columbarium Complex was extended to all honorably discharged veterans...â€
If the WASPs were given veteran status in 1977 and this occurred in 1980, then what is being used to deny them inurnment now? Someone has to be quoting some rule or regulation to block them.
You have very solid points.
When I made the statement of the women were in just as much danger as the men I was only referring to the atrocious accidents here in the U.S. by all pilots.
The first time I read this I was totally blown away at the aircraft and men lost just state side in these training and routine flying accidents.
Let us agree though all who flew, men and women,during W.W. II put a certain amount on the line every time they flew.
We will never again see such courage and country come together for such a war ever again.
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