Article courtesy of WTOP via “The Rundown”
The struggle for planners at Arlington National Cemetery is figuring out what’s next as the Virginia cemetery inches closer to capacity.
One option to make the cemetery open for new burials long into future is to change who is eligible to make the cemetery their final resting place.
Army Maj. Shannon Way, a strategic planner at Arlington National Cemetery, said the public has taken interest in this topic.
Arlington National Cemetery saw more than 7,000 funerals in 2017 and more than 220,000 people took an online survey about who should get priority if the eligibility is changed.
Way said the response “shows us how important this cemetery is to the public.”
Based on the results so far, people want the cemetery to remain open for new burials, with those killed in action and Medal of Honor recipients always having a place for burial at the cemetery, Way said.