Perhaps you’ve read about the WASPs — Women Airforce Service Pilots — who are seeking burial in Arlington National Cemetery. No, there weren’t 250,000 of them, only 1,000 or so. The 250,000 comes in later.
I read about the WASPs many, many years ago — I have the impression it was one of the first adult non-fiction books I read, in high school. And it’s a great story, with women pilots ferrying planes stateside to free up male pilots for military service in World War II. They lived in barracks and wore uniforms like the men, and 38 of them died — a loss of life that’s not trivial, but, of course, not the same as combat troops either.
But they were considered civilians, and ineligible for veterans’ services, including Arlington burial. This changed in 1977, when they were granted veteran status, and eligible for services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2002, the administrator at Arlington determined that this status meant that they were likewise eligible for burial there — or rather, inurnment, because burial is only for those who died in service, along with certain smaller groups of people* — but in March 2015, Army Secretary John McHugh rescinded that decision, determining that the 1977 law only applied to programs run by the VA, and Arlington is run by the Army, not the VA. This has inspired protests, a change.org petition, and legislation sponsored by 97 House members. For details, see this article in the LA Times (simultaneously printed in the Chicago Tribune).
(* It may be that WWII vets are grandfathered in; as the link specifies that there are such groups, but without details.)
But here’s the catch:
WASP pilots aren’t the only “active duty designees” — or civilians performing work of a military nature — in World War II. The men who served in the merchant marine are in the same situation, as acknowledged in the reports at cbsnews.com and huffingtonpost.com.
And these men served at far greater risk to their lives — 243,000 served, and 9,497 died. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean which the German U-boats prowled mercilessly was a very dangerous task, even if they weren’t in direct combat.
(Family lore says my grandfather served in the Greek merchant marine — but jumped ship upon landing in New York, to join up with family there.)
So it’s not really about the women. If anything, for WASP pilots to be granted Arlington burial privilege rights but not the merchant mariners, would be an unjust special treatment. It’s about whether this much larger group should be in Arlington as well.
And — if you take a step back a bit — the determination that every veteran must be given the opportunity to be buried in Arlington, and that Arlington must be extended however extensively is necessary to make this happen (see this hotair.com piece, for instance), is simply an indicator of our youth as a country, and our lack of long-term perspective. What will our descendants, a hundred, two hundred or more years from now, think of our burial customs, when not just Arlington but countless cemeteries are filled? What will burial customs look like at that point?
To be honest, I rather prefer the custom in Germany, where gravesites are leased, for as long as descendants wish to, and are cared for, with living plants rather than artificial flowers. (See here for an article from the point of view of U.S. servicemen stationed there.) When the lease expires, any remains of the decayed corpse are reburied deeper (though, interestingly, this is becoming a problem in some places) and the site is reused.
Image: from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arlington_National_Cemetery_graves.jpg; public domain
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