Blog 3224 – 08.30.2024

Hallowed Ground

I was born and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Chattanooga National Cemetery is located just a few blocks from where I spent the first ten years of my life. It was established on December 25, 1863 actually almost six months before Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Arlington plantation was seized by the Federal government and turned into Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1864.

The Chattanooga National Cemetery was a favorite spot for my Mom and Dad and they strolled through the cemetery when they were courting and took my brother and I there on many occasions. My dad served in World War Two in both the Navy and the Army and was entitled to be buried there. And so he was in 1997 and three years later when my mom died she was buried in the same grave with her name and information carved on the back of his tombstone. Whenever I am in Chattanooga, which is not that often, I visit my parent’s grave and others nearby. I consider it hallowed or sacred ground much as the memorials in Washington, D.C. and Arlington National Cemetery.

There are rules of ethics and etiquette not to mention some Federal, DOD, and Army laws and regulations regarding conduct in National Cemeteries. The U.S. Army actually runs Arlington. National Cemetery. For several days now there have been several stories about unlawful behavior by the Trump Campaign filming in an unauthorized area of Arlington National Cemetery and when an employee asked them to stop she was assaulted (pushed aside) and later demeaned by a Trump Campaign staffer.

The former President himself showed little respect for the honored dead as he walked across their graves giving a thumbs up. It was a blatant disregard of the law prohibiting the use of the National Cemetery for political purposes. It was a photo opt that the Trump Campaign wanted to film to use in a political ad campaign attacking the Biden/Harris administration for the death of thirteen soldiers that occurred during the evacuation of American forces from Afghanistan.

I grew up like many Americans being taught to honor those who serve in the military. At eighteen on my birthday I signed up for the United States Army. And little over a year later after my training was ordered to the Republic of South Vietnam were I served as a teletype repairman for the Army Security Agency on Tan Son Nhut Airbase and in Saigon (Now Ho Chi Minh City.)

Someday when this adventure is over for me my son will see to it that my remains rest at the National Cemetery in Houston, Texas. Cremation with my ashes scattered to the four winds was my first choice but my son refused to do that so I told him that as a Veteran I am entitled to a free plot and grave stone at any National Cemetery so in thirty years or so I figure that is where my body will end up after I have completed my ten thousand blogs.

Hallowed ground like the National Cemeteries in Chattanooga, Arlington, Houston or Gettysburg should be accorded the proper respect. You would think a former Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces would know that. Those of us who served and had loved ones who served do.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White