page_title: Arlington National Cemetery
section_title: Burial criteria
hierarchical_section_title: Arlington National Cemetery / Burial procedures / Burial criteria
caption_attribution_description: English: A sign commanding silence and respect at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia.
context_page_description: Arlington National Cemetery is a United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in whose 624 acres the dead of the nation's conflicts have been buried, beginning with the Civil War, as well as reinterred dead from earlier wars. The United States Department of the Army, a component of the United States Department of Defense, controls the cemetery.
  The national cemetery was established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, which had been the estate of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Custis Lee. The Cemetery, along with Arlington House, Memorial Drive, the Hemicycle, and the Arlington Memorial Bridge, form the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2014.
context_section_description: Part 553 (Army National Military Cemeteries) of Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) establishes regulations for the cemetery, including eligibility for interment (ground burial) and inurnment. Due to limited space, the criteria for ground burial eligibility are more restrictive than at other national cemeteries, as well as more restrictive than for inurnment in the columbarium.
  The persons specified below are eligible for ground burial in the cemetery, unless otherwise prohibited. The last period of active duty of former members of the armed forces must have ended honorably. Interment may be of casketed or cremated remains.
  Any active-duty member of the armed forces (except those members serving on active duty for training only)
  Any veteran who is retired and eligible for retirement pay from service in the armed forces, including service members retired from a reserve component who served a period of active duty (other than for training)
  Any former member of the armed forces separated honorably prior to October 1, 1949, for medical reasons and who was rated at 30% or greater disabled effective on the day of discharge
  Any former member of the armed forces who has been awarded one of the following decorations:
  Medal of Honor
  Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, or Air Force Cross
  Silver Star
  Purple Heart
  Any former member of the armed forces who served on active duty (other than for training) and who held any of the following positions:
  An elective office of the U.S. Government (such as a term in Congress)
  Office of the Chief Justice of the United States or of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  An office listed, at the time the person held the position, in 5 USC 5312 or 5313 (Levels I and II of the Executive Schedule)
  The chief of a mission who was at any time during his/her tenure classified in Class I under the provisions of Section 411, Act of August 13, 1946, 60 Stat. 1002, as amended (22 USC 866) or as listed in State Department memorandum dated March 21, 1988
  Any former prisoner of war who, while a prisoner of war, served honorably in the active military, naval, or air service, whose last period of military, naval or air service terminated honorably and who died on or after November 30, 1993
  The spouse, widow or widower, minor child, or permanently dependent child, and certain unmarried adult children of any of the above eligible veterans
  The widow or widower of:
  a member of the armed forces who was lost or buried at sea or fell out of a plane or officially determined to be permanently absent with a status of either missing or missing in action
  a member of the armed forces who is interred in a US military cemetery overseas that is maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission
  The spouse, minor child, or permanently dependent child of any person already buried in Arlington National Cemetery
  The parents of a minor child, or permanently dependent child whose remains, based on the eligibility of a parent, are already buried at Arlington. A spouse divorced from the primary eligible, or widowed and remarried, is not eligible for interment
  Provided certain conditions are met, a former member of the armed forces may be buried in the same grave with a close relative who is already buried and is the primary eligible
caption: Respectful silence is requested at the Arlington National Cemetery.
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