Friday's Photo: Arlington Cemetery in December

We visited Arlington National Cemetery last week. There were wreaths on most of the headstones that I could see. A few of the older headstones, where military fathers and sons were buried together, had two wreaths and gravestones, marked with the Star of David, had no wreath out of respect for the Jewish tradition of not placing floral decorations on graves.

 

The wreaths are placed on the graves by Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization that coordinates wreath laying ceremonies at Arlington as well as other cemeteries in all 50 states and other locations throughout the world. Click here to read more about the history of this organization. 

For my Quinn family -  Photos of my husband and his parent's graves - William Joseph and Doris Staubach Quinn. 

Diana

© 2016

Sacred Ground - Our National Cemeteries

Last year, I attended a burial at Arlington National Cemetery and at the service, the presiding Chaplin described Arlington as sacred ground. All of our national cemeteries are sacred ground. Today is the day that we remember those who died serving our country; many of whom are buried in our national cemeteries. 

There are 131 national cemeteries in and the VA continues to purchase land for new cemeteries. For a list of all of the national cemeteries visit this link at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.  

To search for the burial location of a veteran, use the Nationwide Gravesite Locator. 

Diana

© 2014

Sources

"National Cemetery Administration." National Cemetery Listing - Web. 26 May 2014. <http://http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/cems/allnational.asp

"Nationwide Gravesite Locator." Nationwide Gravesite Locator. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2014. <http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/index.html

Friday's Photo: Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery now has a burial database of its more than 400,000 burials. The database, the ANC Explorer, is searchable on-line and is also available as an app. Photographs of gravestones can be downloaded from the site. These photographs, found using the ANC Explorer, show the gravestone for William J. Quinn, my father-in-law. On the back of this stone, is the birth and death information for his wife, my mother-in-law, Doris Mary Quinn. 

Diana

© 2012