Cemetery
Facts
1. Arlington National Cemetery is the only military cemetery that is
authorized to use horses as a regular part of its ceremony.
2 There are approximately 16,000 ceremonies conducted annually at the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
3. Flags are lowered to half staff 30 minutes before the first funeral and remain at half staff until 30 minutes after the last service.
4. Arlington National Cemetery averages 15 funerals per day, approximately
3,000 annually. It is expected to reach capacity in the year 2020,
when over 250,000 people will have been buried.
5. The President sends four wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery each year on:
- Memorial Day
- Veterans Day
- President Kennedy's birthday
- President Taft's birthday
7. Over Memorial Day weekend, flags are placed on each grave in the cemetery. Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry (Old Guard) have flags on all the graves by dawn, and the flags remain on the grave sites until after the Memorial Day service.
8. Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
placed several items in President John F. Kennedy's casket prior to burial.
These include a pair of gold cuff links, piece of scrimshaw engraved with
the presidential seal silver rosary and a PT-109 tie clasp.
9. The designation United States Colored Troops on a stone indicates that the individual served in a black regiment. There are 3,800 former slaves buried in Arlington Cemetery, most of them in section 27. Their stones have either "civilian" or "citizen" engraved on them.
10. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contains remains from soldiers who
fought in World War I, World War II and the Korean Conflict. (The
remains of the soldier from the Vietnam Conflict were recently removed
as his identity was discovered.) The American Revolution unknown
soldier is located in Alexandria, Virginia, in the burial grounds of the
Presbyterian Meeting House.
Now you have learned these facts, try this crossword puzzle.