The entrance to
Arlington National Cemetery

The goal of mine with Funeral Director Daily is not only to assist and inform owner/operators of funeral homes and cemeteries with business ideals and practices that are current in the industry but to educate them with items they don’t necessarily have the time to look into on their own. Today’s message is one of those items.

Recently I found an interesting fact sheet on Arlington National Cemetery published by CNN affiliate, Gant News.  I would suggest that you click thru to the article to get much more information on the cemetery, but here is a few highlights that I found interesting that I hope you will too:

**Arlington National has a history, prior to being a cemetery, of being owned by both the families of our first President George Washington and the top general of the Confederate army, Gen. Robert E. Lee.  You see it was originally owned by George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted grandson of George Washington. His daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Robert E. Lee and inherited the estate.  It was eventually abandoned by the Lees during the Civil War and served as headquarters for the Union Army in that war.

**It holds the second largest amount of deceased veterans of all national cemeteries.  Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island holds the honor of most interments.

**The first interment was May 13, 1864 and was for Private William H. Christman of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry.

**The flags at Arlington National Cemetery are flown at half-staff from a half-hour prior to the first interment until a half hour after the last interment of each day.

**The partial remains of the seven astronauts who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986, are buried at the cemetery.

**The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has never been officially named.  It is a memorial to the dead of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.  Inscribed on the tomb is the following, “Here lies in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God”.

**The tomb is guarded 24 hours a day every day of the year by volunteer members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment carrying M-14 rifles.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’m an old-school type of guy, but I think it is extremely important that those of us in our profession know some American history about our field.  Knowing some things about Arlington National Cemetery is a great place to start.

If you have not visited Arlington National you should.  It was a wonderful experience for me.  I’ve also been privileged to work with funeral services near Arlington to help me arrange the interments of three eligible soldiers over the years.  Than too, was an honor.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]