On Hallowed Ground

by Robert M Poole

  47. Brinkley and Haskew, 432–34.

  48. Keegan, 591.

  49. Allan Kozinn, “Paderewski to Go Home, 51 Years After His Death,” The New York Times, June 25, 1992; “Background of Ignace Jan Paderewski at Arlington National Cemetery,”http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/hisorical_information/jan_paderewski.html; Wanda Wilk, “Polish Composers: Ignace Jan Paderewski,”http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/padrewski/html.

  50. More than sixty foreign nationals are buried at Arlington, many of them from the Second World War. The best known is Field Marshal Sir John Dill, wartime chief of the British Military Mission in Washington. Less prominent are the prisoners of war who died before they could return home: Anton Hilberath of Germany; Mario Batista of Italy, and Arcangelo Prudenza of Italy. Each year on All Souls’ Day, officials from the Italian embassy visit Arlington to leave flowers at the graves of their countrymen. “62 Foreign Nationals Interred at Arlington National Cemetery,”http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/foreign_nationals.html.

  51. Keegan, 595.

  52. World War II is also the last war to be officially declared by Congress, which helped galvanize the nation for the conflict.

  53. Steven E. Anders, “With All Due Honors,” Quartermaster Professional Bulletin, Autumn/Winter 1994.

  54. Ibid.

  55. Arlington National Cemetery (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Support Services, n.d., 17.

  56. Anders. There were more deaths in the Civil War than in World War II, but the reinterment program from the Second World War was far broader in scope, ranging from the Aleutian Islands, across the Himalayas, to the shores of the Mediterranean and up through Europe. Some 280,000 Americans were recovered and reinterred during the six-year campaign.

  57. “Graves Registration,” Quartermaster Review, May/June 1946.

  58. Anders.

  59. Robert M. Poole, “Lost Over Laos,” Smithsonian, August 2006.

  60. Murphy’s standard-issue tombstone was too small to list all of his 28 decorations, foreign and domestic.

  61. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., speech to his troops before D-Day, in Douglas Brinkley, ed., World War II: The Allied Counteroffensive, 1942–1945 (New York: Times Books, 2003) 168–70.

  62. Ibid., 171.

  63. “Executive Order 9981,”http://www .trumanlibrary .org/9981a.html.

  64. It took until 1953 for Truman’s order to take effect. But the military led the way for the rest of society. By banning discrimination through executive order instead of legislation, Truman shrewdly short-circuited the political process in Congress, where southerners stalled or defeated most civil rights measures.

  65. Donald Smythe, Pershing: General of the Armies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 302–9.

  66. Ibid. Like other statements attributed to Pershing, this one may be mythical, but the sentiment is genuine.

  67. Ibid.; B. C. Mossman and M. Warner Stark, The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funerals 1921–1969 (Washington, D.C: Center of Military History, 1971), 28–44.

  68. Smythe, 302–9.

  69. Mossman and Stark, 28–44.

  70. Ibid.

  11: THE NASTIEST LITTLE WAR

  1. B. C. Mossman and M. Warner Stark, The Last Salute ( Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1971), 93; “Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers,” Quartermaster Review, Jan.–Feb. 1964, 1.

  2. John Keegan, The Second World War (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 594.

  3. David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (New York: Hyper-ion, 2007), 1.

  4. Ibid., 1–2.

  5. Bradley Lynn Coleman,“Recovering the Korean War Dead, 1950–1958: Graves Registration, Forensic Anthropology, and Wartime Memorialization,” 38, John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis, Virginia Military Institute.

  6. Halberstam, 4.

  7. Halberstam, 2.

  8. Lt. Col. John C. Cook, “Graves Registration in the Korean Conflict,” Quartermaster Review, March-April 1953, 1–11; Coleman, 1–10.

  9. Coleman, 8–9.

  10. Ibid., 6.

  11. Halberstam, 486–87.

  12. Ibid.

  13. “Walker Is Buried In Arlington Rites,” The New York Times, Jan. 3, 1951; “Gen. Walker’s Body Reaches Washington,” The New York Times, Dec. 31, 1951; “Rites For Gen. Walker Tuesday,” The New York Times, Dec. 29, 1950; “Hero’s Rites For Walker: General’s Body at Arlington—To Be Buried Near Pershing,” The New York Times, Jan. 1, 1951; “4 Stars Voted Walker,” The New York Times, Jan. 2, 1951.

  14. “A Final Salute For Commander Of Forces in Korea,” The New York Times, Jan. 3, 1951.

  15. Shirley Young to President Truman, Jan. 5, 1951, Office File 471-B, Box 1351, HST Papers, HSTL.

  16. Norma Potter to President Truman, June 26, 1951, Office File 471-B, Box 1351, HST Papers, HSTL.

  17. Deara Eartbawey to President Truman, Jan. 31, 1952, Office File 471-B, Box 1351, HST Papers, HSTL.

  18. Coleman, 11.

  19. Ibid., 22.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Madelaine C. Smith, telegram to Sen. Ernest W. McFarland for President Truman, May (n.d.) 1951, Office File 471-B, Box 1305, HST Papers, HSTL.

  22. Congressional Medal of Honor Society,http://www.cmohs.org/recipient. The Medal of Honor was awarded to 133 men from the Korean conflict, with 95 of the medals given posthumously. No other conflict approached it in proportion for posthumous awards, 74 percent. In the Second World War, 464 Medals of Honor were awarded, 266 of them posthumously.

  23. Col. John D. Martz Jr., “Homeward Bound,” Quartermaster Review,May-June 1954, 3.

  24. During the past decade, North Korea allowed specialty teams from the United States to recover a few missing American servicemen from their country under carefully controlled conditions. The unsettled relations between the United States and North Korea has sharply limited such recovery missions.

  25. Coleman, 39–40; Martz, 4–5.

  26. Mossman and Stark, 93.

  27. “Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers,” Quartermaster Review, Jan.-Feb. 1964, 1–17.

  28. Ibid.

  29. The Navy had long buried its dead at sea, but this was the first time a candidate for Unknown honors had been committed to the deep. This form of burial not only gave the Navy an important role in the ceremonies of 1958 but also ensured the serviceman’s anonymity.

  30. “Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers,” Quartermaster Review, Jan.-Feb. 1964, 1–17; Jack Raymond, “Unknown Soldier of World War II Is Selected at Sea,” The New York Times, May 27, 1958; Mossman and Stark, 98–99.

  31. Jack Raymond, “Unknowns of World War II And Korea Are Enshrined,” The New York Times, May 31, 1958; Mossman and Stark, 105–24.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Ibid.

  34. “Unknowns of World War II,” The New York Times, May 31, 1958.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.; Mossman and Stark, 120–24.

  37. John Keegan, A History of Warfare (New York: Vintage, 1994), 379–80.

  38. Simon LeVay, When Science Goes Wrong (New York: Plume, 2008), 152–159; William McKeown, Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America’s First Nuclear Accident(Toronto: ECW Press, 2003), 143–44.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Ibid.

  41. 2nd Lt. Leon S. Monroe II, assistant adjutant general, Headquarters Military District of Washington, to John C. Metzler, superintendent, Arlington National Cemetery, Jan. 31, 1961, “Interment of Radioactive Remains,”http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/mcknl.htm.

  12: “I COULD STAY HERE FOREVER”

  1. Paul Fuqua, interviewed by author, Nov. 1, 2006.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.; Charles Bartlett, interviewed by Fred Holborn, Feb. 20, 1965, JFKL. Bartlett credits Kennedy with another aside from that day at Arlington. “Wouldn’t this be a fine place to have the White House?�
�� the president asked Bartlett.

  7. Fuqua.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. John C. Metzler Jr., superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, interviewed by author, Oct. 15, 2008; B. C. Mossman and M. Warner Stark, The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funerals 1922-1969(Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1971), 188.

  11. “Funeral Services of President Kennedy 23–25 November 1963,” DVD, JFKL.

  12. Ralph Dungan, interviewed by William Manchester, April 15, 1964, “William Manchester Papers,” Special Collections and Archives, Wesleyan University Library, 79–82, hereafter WMP.

  13. Nancy Tuckerman and Pamela Turnure, interviewed by Mrs. Wayne Fredericks, n.d., JFKL.

  14. Rep. Hale Boggs, interviewed by Charles T. Morrissey, May 10, 1964, JFKL; William Manchester, The Death of a President (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 448, 490–91.

  15. Bartlett.

  16. Paul C. Miller, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  17. Bartlett; Boggs.

  18. Bartlett.

  19. Dungan, WMP, 79–80. Jacqueline Kennedy, an accomplished horsewoman, used the technically correct nomenclature for gray horses, which the rest of the world, including the caisson platoon at Fort Myer, Virginia, calls white horses. The author follows Mrs. Kennedy’s example.

  20. Manchester, 539.

  21. Ibid., 490–91.

  22. Mossman and Stark, 19; John C. Metzler Jr., interviewed by author, Oct. 15, 2008.

  23. Woodrow Wilson, who died in 1924, was buried in the National Cathedral in Washington.

  24. John C. Metzler Sr. notes on the Kennedy funeral, undated, WMP. Metzler makes no mention of touring the cemetery with Robert McNamara, but Manchester has the secretary of defense visiting Arlington to inspect sites at the time of Metzler’s survey, which suggests that they made at least one tour together.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Manchester, 492–95.

  28. Ted Sorensen, Counselor (New York: Harper, 2008), 365.

  29. Metzler, WMP.

  30. Manchester, 495–96; Metzler, WMP.

  31. Metzler, WMP.

  32. Manchester, 496–97.

  33. Fuqua.

  34. Thomas A. Hughes to Ramsey Clark, “John F. Kennedy Plot in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia,” Nov. 27, 1963, WMP.

  35. Samuel R. Bird, “After Action Report, Joint Casket Team—State Funeral, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy,” Dec. 10, 1963, WMP.

  36. Sgt. Keith Mann and other members of the caisson platoon, author interview, Fort Myer, VA, June 29, 2005; Tom Setterberg in Kenneth S. Pond et al., eds., Farewell to the President, Personal Memoirs of the State Funeral of President John F. Kennedy(privately published, 2008) 19:1–4.

  37. Dungan, WMP, 81.

  38. Setterberg, 19:1–4.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Arthur A. Carlson, in Farewell to the President, 2: 1–4.

  41. Sorensen, 366.

  42. Manchester, 421; Thomas F. Reid, in Farewell to the President, 16:2.

  43. Letitia Baldridge Hollensteiner, interviewed by Mrs. Wayne Fredericks, April 24, 1964, JFKL.

  44. Confidential interview by William Manchester, WMP.

  45. Louis W. Odom, in Farewell to the President,14:4.

  46. Carlson, 2:1–4.

  47. Hollensteiner.

  48. Kenneth S. Pond, in Farewell to the President, 15:4–5.

  49. Edward M. Gripkey, in Farewell to the President, 7:3.

  50. Thomas F. Reid, in Farewell to the President, 16:2. Sgt. Gary Rogers, a member of the Old Guard who helped form an honor cordon along the funeral route, notes a similar clash with the Green Berets: “I … remember the arrogance of the Special Forces Colonel who wouldn’t allow his men to mess with our troops as they were too elite. Later we noticed some of the Special Forces guys faint as they stood at attention along the parade route. They may have been tough troopers, but they didn’t know how to stand at attention for long periods of time.” in Farewell to the President, 18:1–2.

  51. Sam Bird was placed in charge of the president’s casket team because the Army, as the nation’s oldest military service, had seniority over other services contributing members to the casket detail.

  52. Douglas A. Mayfield, in Farewell to the President, 10:3.

  53. Samuel R. Bird, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  54. “Funeral Services of President Kennedy 23–25 November 1963,” DVD, JFKL.

  55. Jimmy Breslin, “Digging JFK Grave Was His Honor,” The New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 26, 1963.

  56. Philip Bigler, In Honored Glory: Arlington National Cemetery (St. Petersburg, FL: Van-damere Press, 2004), 86.

  57. Breslin.

  58. Metzler, WMP. Another possible inspiration for Arlington’s eternal flame is the Eternal Light Peace Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park. President and Mrs. Kennedy visited the memorial in March 1963 during the centennial year of the Civil War battle.

  59. Metzler, WMP.

  60. Ibid.; Manchester, 552.

  61. Fuqua.

  62. Manchester, 552.

  63. Mayfield in Farewell to the President, 10:2.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Ibid.

  66. Bird,“After Action Report,” WMP.

  67. Samuel R. Bird, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  68. Annette Bird and Tim Prouty, So Proudly He Served: The Sam Bird Story (Wichita: Okarche Books, 1993) 87; Samuel R. Bird, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  69. Rep. Neil Staebler, interviewed by Howard Cook, Dec. 4, 1964, JFKL.

  70. Manchester, 570.

  71. Mayfield, in Farewell to the President, 10:4.

  72. Sam R. Bird, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  73. Irving Lowens, “Accurate Listing of Funeral Music,” The Washington Star, Dec. 1, 1963.

  74. Bird and Prouty, So Proudly, 89–90.

  75. “Funeral Services of President Kennedy 23–25 November 1963,” DVD, JFKL.

  76. Mary McCrory, “He Would Have Liked It,” The Boston Globe, Nov. 26, 1963; Lowens, “Accurate Listing of Funeral Music.”

  77. Michael J. McNamara in Farewell to the President, 12:6; Louie W. Odom in Farewell to the President, 14:3; Manchester, 560.

  78. Setterberg, in Farewell to the President,19:3.

  79. Reid, in Farewell to the President, 16:3.

  80. Ibid.

  81. Pond, in Farewell to the President, 15:5.

  82. William Malcolm, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  83. James R. Holder, in Farewell to the President, 8:2.

  84. Carlson in Farewell to the President, 2:3.

  85. Setterberg in Farewell to the President, 19:4.

  86. “Funeral Services of President Kennedy 23–25 November 1963,” DVD, JFKL; “Actual Time Sequence, State Funeral for President John F. Kennedy, 25 November 1963,” WMP.

  87. Malcolm, WMP; Manchester, 599.

  88. Richard Goldstein, “Keith Clark, Bugler for Kennedy, Dies at 74,” The New York Times, Jan.17, 2002.

  89. Reid in Farewell to the President, 16:12; Manchester, 599–600.

  90. “Funeral Services of President Kennedy 23–25 November 1963,” DVD, JFKL.

  91. Ibid; Metzler, WMP.

  92. Manchester, 601.

  93. Metzler, WMP.

  94. Ibid.

  95. Manchester, 605.

  96. Metzler, WMP.

  97. Metzler, WMP.

  98. Michael J. McNamara in Farewell to the President, 12:5.

  99. Woodrow T. Blair in Farewell to the President, 1:2.

  100. Reid in Farewell to the President, 16:7; “Arlington National Cemetery—Comprehensive Plan,” Washington, D.C., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1978, 17; “Arlington National Cemetery—Master Plan,” Washington, D.C., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998, 8–9.

  101. Blair in Farewell to the
President, 1:1–2.

  102. Reid in Farewell to the President, 16:7.

  103. John C. Metzler Jr., interviewed by author, Oct. 15, 2008.

  104. “Robert F. Kennedy Memorial,” Arlington National Cemetery,http://arlington cemetery.org/visitor_information/Robert_F._Kennedy.html.

  105. Tom Sherlock, historian of Arlington National Cemetery, in “Tribute to Arlington National Cemetery,” George J. Wilson Jr., CombatVets.net, Feb. 28, 2007. A new cross replaced the one stolen from Robert Kennedy’s grave; the thieves were never found.

  106. “Arlington National Cemetery—Master Plan,” Washington, D.C., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998, 8–9.

  107. Arlington’s columbarium, a complex of marble courts where cremated remains are preserved in small niches, was opened in the early 1980s. Eight of nine courts have been completed, with capacity for some 5,000 inurnments in each court. Because the columbarium uses so little space, qualifying regulations for inurnment are less stringent for inurnment than those for interment.

  108. “Arlington National Cemetery—Master Plan,” Washington, D.C., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1998, 8–9.

  109. Metzler Jr., Oct. 15, 2008.

  110. Samuel R. Bird, interviewed by William Manchester, April 30, 1964, WMP.

  111. William W. Morris in Farewell to the President, 13:5.

  112. Metzler Jr., Oct. 15, 2008.

  113. “1/3 Battalion HHC Caisson Platoon,”www.army.mil/oldguard/specplt/caisson.htm.

  114. B. T. Collins, “The Courage of Sam Bird,” Reader’s Digest, May 1989, 49–54; Bird, “After Action Report,” WMP.