Free Republic

This Veterans Day 2009, the only remaining unidentified veteran's grave in the Indian River Cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. All other veterans' graves have been identified by name, war, date of death and location and catalogued into a database and map created by a Morgan School senior, Devon Isaacson for his Eagle Scout accreditation. While veterans' graves are marked with bronze service medals issued by the U.S. government, Devon is the first to produce a collection of Clinton's interred servicemen in the historic Cemetery . . . In his project, Devon divided the cemetery's 45 acres into...

ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey’s oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they’re worn, but because they’re partially underground. While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerRows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is currently undergoing a project of preserving...

Five fallen U.S. sailors from what has been described as America's first war on terrorism lie in a crumbling cemetery in Libya, their graves identified only by their heroism on a night more than 200 years ago. They represent a lingering legacy of the Intrepid -- a small ship used in a daring raid in 1804 to destroy the captured American frigate Philadelphia anchored in Tripoli Harbor, denying the enemy use of the former U.S. warship. Much the same tactic was attempted six months later when the Intrepid sailed into the same harbor, packed with gunpowder for use as a...

Jakarta, Indonesia (AP) - Explosive material recovered from the scene of two suicide bombings at hotels in the Indonesian capital is "identical" to that used by the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah in earlier attacks, police said. An unexploded bomb left in a room of the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta resembled devices used in attacks on Bali and one found in a recent raid against the network on an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, national police spokesman told a news conference Sunday.

CHICAGO - The White House, correcting earlier reports, says Michelle Obama's father is not buried at a cemetery where workers are accused of digging up and dumping bodies but at a cemetery nearby. Spokeswoman Camille Johnston in an e-mail message on Tuesday said Fraser Robinson III is buried in Lincoln Cemetery. Earlier in the day she was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying Robinson was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. The Cook County Clerk's office also confirmed that Robinson was buried at Lincoln, which is located in Alsip less than two miles from Burr Oak. Robinson died...

Banner only; no link yet Just mentioned by Andrea Mitchell, who breathlessly reports this now gives the story a political angle...

When I last wrote about Thistlerose Pet Cemetery and Crematory in 2008, the owners and their lawyer were promising the so-called final resting grounds would not be disturbed, even though the property in Greendale was for sale. Well, forget all that. Get the shovels back out.In a notice displayed at Thistlerose, they're already referring to it as the "former" cemetery. The anticipated closing date for the sale is July 30. "You have until July 24, 2009, to arrange for the removal of the remains of your pet and any memorial marker. If the remains and any marker are not removed...

video clip ALSIP, Ill. (AP) -- Three gravediggers and a cemetery manager unearthed hundreds of corpses from a historic black cemetery south of Chicago, dumping some in a weeded area and double-stacking others in existing graves, in an elaborate scheme to resell the plots, authorities said Thursday. All four were charged with felonies. Frantic relatives of the deceased descended on Burr Oak Cemetery - the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington - in hopes someone could tell them their loved ones' remains were not among the pile of bones that...

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

Bodies Dug Up, Plots Resold at Historic Cemetery: Police As many as 100 bodies disinterred at Alsip's Burr Oak Cemetery By BJ LUTZ and PHIL ROGERS Updated 6:19 PM CDT, Wed, Jul 8, 2009 As many as 100 human bodies may have been dug up from a South suburban cemetery and the burial plots resold, investigators said Wednesday. Often called the first African-American cemetery in Chicago, Alsip's Burr Oak Cemetery has a storied past and is the final resting place for several notables, including boxing great Ezzard Charles and blues legends Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington. Emmett Till, whose murder...

Vandals toppled 115 headstones and ripped up American flags in Hazelwood's Calvary Cemetery, where some of Pittsburgh's noted political, sports, religious and arts figures are buried, causing an estimated tens of thousands of dollars damage. The vandalism discovered Wednesday morning was the worst in the history of the Catholic Cemeteries Association, which oversees 16 cemeteries for the Diocese of Pittsburgh

MARGRATEN, Netherlands, June 10, 2009 – The 8,301 Americans buried at this beautifully manicured cemetery reminded Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today of the cost Americans pay for freedom. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tours the World War II Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial where 8,301 U.S. servicemembers are buried in Margraten, Netherlands. Along the sides are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names, June 10, 2009. DOD photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates visited this cemetery during a break in meetings about Afghanistan’s Regional Command...

PORT HURON, Mich. (May 31) -- Squirrel. Thief. Patriot. A brazen squirrel has been grabbing small American flags placed in a Port Huron, Mich., cemetery and carrying them up to its nest, which now looks as if it's bedecked in bunting.

KIRKUK — More than 50 local Iraqi family members stepped foot inside the green gates of the Sultan Saqi cemetery to pay respect to mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and beloved ancestors, May 27. For some, it was the first time in decades they have crossed the sacred threshold. After Iraq's old regime barred relatives access to this site for almost 35 years, they were granted official visits to two on-base cemeteries here thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Air Force, Iraqi Air Force, a Defense Department Human Terrain Team, and the Kirkuk Provincial Council's Religious Affairs Committee. The U.S....

Sylmar's Pioneer Cemetery Gets Some Needed Attention on Memorial Day San Fernando Valley Historical Society held their annual Memorial Day activities at the historic Pioneer Memorial Cemetery located in Sylmar. This small plot of fenced land is the second oldest cemetery in the San Fernando Valley. Within its very rough cemetery grounds are individual's tombs that have their own stories to tell anyone interested in knowing them. On this Memorial Day, Civil War veterans (shamefully in currently unmarked graves) were the center of attention by the day's memorial speeches. However, there are many more unmarked veterans tombs of several historical...

On this Memorial Day, thousands of small American flags will fly in cemeteries near your home, next to the headstones of men and women who defended this country. Flags also will decorate the thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery as well as sacred ground throughout Europe and the Pacific that bears long, straight rows of ivory-white crosses and stars. Many of the young Americans who rest under these simple markers did not live past the age of 19 or 20. There also are tens of thousands of equally young men who fought gallantly for this country during World War...

SHANGHAI, China (JTA) -- In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Western philanthropists and volunteers are restoring dozens of historic Jewish cemeteries. But in Shanghai, there are none to restore. The four cemeteries that once served this city’s small but prosperous Jewish community disappeared in the late 1960s during China’s Cultural Revolution. The sites were paved over to build a factory, park, hotel and Muslim cemetery, their history forgotten. Israeli photojournalist Dvir Bar-Gal is trying to change that. While the cemeteries may be gone, since 2001 Bar-Gal has made it his mission to track down as many of the...

BISBEE — Seventeen-year-old Andrew “Andy” Laborin has nearly achieved a project of upgrading Memory Gardens Cemetery on Highway 92. At 10 a.m. Saturday, community members will dedicate the refurbished memorial area. “I found a lot of veterans in there,” the Bisbee High School senior said, describing his Eagle Scout project with Troop 1. The pinnacle of his good turn was the installation of a 30-foot-tall illuminated flagpole at the cemetery. To do that, Laborin rallied community support. Jim’s Electric, located on Naco Highway across from Bisbee’s Safeway, donated half of the cost of the $1,400 flagpole and provided all the...

Clean air, green surroundings, silence, calm and wide streets...sounds like a residential area in a big city, right? In fact this is the City of the Dead, situated in the east of Cairo on the foot slopes of the Moqattam mountain. The City of the Dead is the oldest Muslim cemetery in all Egypt that is still operational, and today it is home to around one million people, living people. Why have such a high number of people chosen to move to a cemetery, and what kind of relationship has been established between the land of the living and that...

MUMBAI, India — A Muslim graveyard has refused to bury nine gunmen who terrorized Mumbai over three days last week, leaving at least 172 people dead and wreaking havoc at some of its most famous landmarks. The men are not true followers of the Islamic faith, according to the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai. "People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee. "

SIERRA VISTA — Family and friends who want to honor a loved one entombed in the columbaria complex at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery no longer have to struggle to put in flower holders. Thanks to Nate Lacey and fellow Boy Scouts of Troop 447, sponsored by the Living Word Church, the ground where the offerings are left is now much easier place to display flowers. Lacey, 14, a freshman at Buena High School, did the columbaria flower rock project as part of his quest to become an Eagle Scout. On Saturday, he and 30 other Cub and Boy...

SIERRA VISTA — A pair of combat boots, a rifle and a helmet. Together, those items are used to honor a fallen member of America’s armed forces. Between the boots, an inverted M-16 is placed and on the butt of the rifle sits a helmet, thus creating a Fallen Soldier Memorial, which is also known as the Soldier’s Fallen Cross Memorial and Battlefield Cross. Jacob Hall’s goal is to have a 150-pound, nearly 5-foot-tall bronze replica of the monument placed near the Committal Shelter of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery by Veterans Day. But he still needs nearly $4,000...

SIERRA VISTA — The first step in the reburial 70 soldiers of the late 1800s took place Wednesday at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery during a ceremony attended by Arizona’s governor and the senior commander on Fort Huachuca. The exhumed remains of the soldiers will be brought to Sierra Vista next year from a long-abandoned cemetery in Tucson. Their final resting place will be among more modern veterans. “We’re very honored that we can be the final resting place for them,” Cemetery Administrator Joe Larson said, noting the reburial occurs May 16. Larry McKim, president of the cemetery foundation,...

A number of veteran events are coming up in the Sierra Vista area. “The one-year clock is ticking and the name of the game is fundraising,” said Joe Larson, administrator of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery. He was speaking about next May’s reburial of remains of soldiers from the late 1800s from a Tucson cemetery to the Sierra Vista site. Larson spoke at the monthly meeting of the Grater Sierra Vista Area United Veterans Council meeting on Saturday. The Historic Soldiers Relocation Project will involve the reburial of 70 sets of remains, of which 53 are known, in an...

Jane Drury voted last year in an election in Stonington, Conn. The only problem is, she died eight years ago. Her daughter Jane Gumpel thought someone must have goofed. “I was surprised because this is not possible,” she said. But it did happen. The town clerk’s record clearly shows Drury’s vote, marked by a horizontal line poll workers put next to her name. And it turns out, Drury isn’t the only voter to apparently cast a ballot from the grave. [snip] 8,558 deceased people who were still registered on Connecticut’s voter rolls. They discovered more than 300 of them appeared...

Visitors stand in the Aldrich Cemetery in Hartland, Vt., Monday, April 21, 2008. A land buyer's proposal to move three graves from the old family cemetery has caused outcry from historians, veterans and neighbors. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) HARTLAND, Vt. - The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows. There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery — with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran — surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll. His proposal to move the graveyard...

HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) -- The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows. There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery _ with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran _ surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll. His proposal to move the graveyard so he can build a house and barn has set off protests. The town has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, a descendant of one occupant of the graveyard is trying to fight him...

Frank Buckles apparently doesn't intend to take the offer any time soon. At 107, he still does 50 sit ups a day and lifts weights three times a week. (MILWAUKIE, Ore.) - Ken Buckles, Executive Director of Oregon's Remembering America's Heroes, has won a long-fought battle – a battle centered around World War One. For twelve years, Buckles has been recognizing and honoring American Vets through his program at Milwaukie High School where he is also a teacher. But this time it was personal. Ken Buckles is related to Frank Buckles, America's last living WWI Veteran.

ARLINGTON, Va., April 4, 2008 – The remains of Colorado Air National Guard Maj. Perry H. Jefferson, who vanished during an observation flight 39 years ago over the jungles of South Vietnam, were at last laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. Members of the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard carry the remains of Colorado Air National Guard Maj. Perry Jefferson into the Old Chapel on Fort Myer, Va., April 3, 2008, 39 years after Jefferson went missing in action in Vietnam. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mike R. Smith, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Three days...

Vladimir Putin is to fulfil an unrealised dream of Joseph Stalin's by creating a grandiose state cemetery. In a corner of northern Moscow bulldozers began churning the earth his week in a section of wasteland where Mr Putin and Stalin, the dictator he is said to revere, could one day be laid side by side. The Federal Military Memorial Cemetery, its designers boast, will be Russia's answer to America's Arlington. Arguably the most ambitious architectural project undertaken since the fall of the Soviet Union, it remains to be seen whether the cemetery, due to be completed by 2010, will become...

Archaeologists in northeast Syria have unearthed a 3rd century cemetery in the shape of a cross, the country's official news agency reported Wednesday. Ten skeletons, along with pottery and coins, were found at the site in Hassaka, 441 miles northeast of the capital Damascus, SANA reported. Some of the artifacts contained inscriptions in the ancient Aramaic language, it said. Wednesday's find came a day after SANA reported that archaeologists had found a Roman-era cemetery in Latakia, northwest of Damascus. That cemetery was believed to date back about 1,000 years, SANA said. Also according to the report, Wednesday's find is not...

Buried With Honors Written by Dava Guerin After years of debate, a new veteran’s cemetery in Bucks County will be finally built. America’s heroes can now come home. “Caught in the action of kill or be killed, no greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for his brother.” These were the words that singer Kris Kristofferson said in his opening to the song by country music artists, Big & Rich entitled, “The Eighth of November.” It was a ballad about a Vietnam veteran, Niles Harris, whom the two singers met in a bar, and they were...

ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 11, 2007 – Vice President Richard B. Cheney today remembered millions of veterans at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month at Arlington National Cemetery. Navy veteran Neil Koski, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Honor Guard, pulls on his gloves prior to the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 11, 2007. Koski and other members of the honor guard passed out programs prior to the ceremony. Photo by Melinda L. Larson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “More than 20 million of our fellow citizens...

SIERRA VISTA — As Arizona prepares for its 100th anniversary as a state in 2012, a special project at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery has been recognized as one of the first Arizona Centennial Legacy Projects. Being called a cemetery within a cemetery, a nearly acre area of the state-operated facility will become the final resting place for about 70 soldiers who died between the mid-1860s to the late 1880s and were buried in what is now downtown Tucson. They and hundreds of civilian bodies are being exhumed to make way for a joint court complex for Tucson and...

A row has erupted over a plan to dig up a third of a million bodies from an historic east London cemetery to make way for a new Muslim burial site. Tower Hamlets council in London is considering reopening the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Mile End to answer a long-running campaign for a Muslim graveyard in the area. The park, off Bow Common Lane, was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by Parliament in 1966, after being deemed full with about 350,000 bodies buried there. It is not yet clear what the Council proposes to do with the...

A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after the burial of another casualty of the Iraq war, officials said on Thursday. "We are full," said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division. U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, on Thursday sent a letter to William Tuerk, the under secretary for memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, urging for full funding for a new cemetery for Fort Riley. "While a new cemetery would not be completed in time to alleviate this situation immediately, it...

A GERMAN woman on her way to pay respects to a dead relative ploughed across the cemetery drunk in her car, smashing up headstones and tombs before she ground to a halt in someone's grave, police said overnight. The woman drove into the graveyard in the southern town of Mitterteich on a track running through it but veered off as she struggled to control her vehicle, local police said. "Eventually she ended up stuck in a grave and couldn't get out, so we had to pull her out," a police spokesman said. "She said she'd come to visit one of...

CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 8, 2007 — There is an unofficial rule for Marines that says to always leave a place in better condition than when they found it. With that goal in mind, Marines from Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, gathered in formation in the early morning hours of one of their last days in Iraq. Their task wasn’t any normal working party or police call, but one that brought them to hallowed ground. Their mission was to clean and restore the British Royal Air Force Cemetery at Camp Habbaniyah. “Once...

Many Americans from the north like to scoff that our southern brethren are still fighting the Civil War, treating them as if they are unaware that the war was over nearly 150 years ago. It has been so often repeated that southerners are still "Confederate" that the stereotype of the southerner looking to the past instead of the future is secure in northerner's minds. Would that it were true that all southerners are so fond of their history because it appears that even one of the most famous Confederate cemeteries in the Confederacy's very own capitol is being forgotten, uncared...

There is a sad majesty to the sounding of "Taps." Each evening, those 24 haunting notes now echo throughout the grounds of the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, and the mournful tune rings out because of Noel Taylor. The 61-year-old Goffstown resident is orchestrating a program of his own creation called "100 Nights of Remembrance," and to do so, he has summoned the assistance of his fellow buglers and trumpet players from all over the state.

Bodies to be stacked double in old graves By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent Last Updated: 2:33am BST 06/06/2007 Graves are to be reopened to allow bodies to be stacked one on top of another in a controversial move announced by the Government yesterday. A consultation last year found that most people would accept 'double-decker' graves Bodies buried for as little as 75 years could be dug up and re-buried in deeper ground to allow another coffin to be interred above. The name of the newly-buried person could even be added to the headstone. This follows Government research which found that...

(05-28) 15:58 PDT ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. (AP) -- Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday. Forty-six flags were burned completely and another 33 were found in charred tatters Sunday in the cemetery, authorities said. Swastikas drawn on paper appeared where 14 of the flags had been. Members of the American Legion on this island off Washington's northwest coast replaced the burned flags with new ones Sunday afternoon. The vandals repeated the stunt on Memorial Day after a guard left at dawn, the...

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va., May 21, 2007 – A black and white photograph with Arlington National Cemetery as the somber yet sublime backdrop captures a lone mourner kneeling before a headstone among seemingly endless rows of pale grave markers. Stones, flowers and other symbols of remembrance grace the grave of Army Sgt. Michael J. Bordelon, who died in May 2005 during a combat operation abroad. Photo by David Burnett, used by permission  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. This poignant image and others are spread across the pages of “Where Valor Rests: Arlington National Cemetery,” a new book that...

Dedication of New Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center Set for June 6, 2007 Sixty-three years after Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to turn the tide of World War II in Europe, a new visitor center at the Normandy American Cemetery in France will open in June 2007 to tell the story of the 9,387 Americans buried there and put the D-Day landings and follow-on battle in Europe in perspective as one of the greatest military achievements of all time. The $30 million visitor center will be dedicated and opened to the public on June 6, 2007 during...

In a little valley ringed by trees on the edge of the Presidio of San Francisco is a lost cemetery containing the graves of hundreds of merchant seamen, buried years ago and forgotten. The graves are unmarked and the names of many buried there are unknown. The cemetery itself, located just beyond the closed Public Health Service Hospital near 15th Avenue and Lake Street, is invisible. The graves, which once had neat wooden headstones enclosed by a fence, were buried under 16 feet of debris from excavations of a missile site in the 1950s. A parking lot was built at...

CBS4) MIAMI -- Is there such a thing as a real witch? Witchcraft is actually a religion called Wicca and just how many believers are present in South Florida may surprise many. CBS4's Laurie Stein took an in-depth look into the world of witches and found that many search area cemeteries in search of ghosts. On one particularly cloudy and dark night, Stein followed some of these witches to a cemetery one evening and what she found may be shocking yet intriguing to some. "There was one mausoleum area that was all lit up at one point, I came with...

Skulls of various races discovered at ancient cemetery near Semnan TEHRAN, Nov. 7 (MNA) -- A team of Iranian archaeologists working at the Gandab ancient cemetery near the city of Semnan have unearthed skulls of various shapes during the third phase of excavations, which is currently underway at the site. The team discovered dolichocephalic (long skulls), mesocephalic (medium skulls), and brachycephalic (short-headed or broad skulls). “Humans are classified based on the shapes of their skulls, which determine the race of the ethnic groups living in a certain region. We discovered humans with long skulls, medium skulls, and short-headed (skulls), which...

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 26, 2006 -- Eighty-eight years after being killed in action along the not-so-quiet Western Front of World War I, Army Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati was buried today with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry carry the casket of formerly missing U.S. Army Pvt. Francis Lupo in Arlington National Cemetery Sept. 26. Lupo was killed in World War I in 1918 in France. Photo by William D. Moss  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Lupo is the first U.S. servicemember classified as missing in action from World War I to...

ARLINGTON, Va. - The only testament to Francis Lupo's death in a World War I battle has long been his name, etched on a French chapel wall with those of hundreds of other missing soldiers. On Tuesday, 88 years after he was killed, the recently discovered remains of the U.S. Army private were buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. And by year's end, his name will be carved anew, this time on a white headstone like those marking the graves of his fellow soldiers. Lupo is the first World War I soldier whose remains — a few fragments...

The cemetery where all face Mecca By Jonathan Wynne-Jones and Tom Harper (Filed: 24/09/2006) The graves in a new cemetery are to be aligned with Mecca – for Muslims and non-Muslims alike – in a move that has upset many Christians. Burial plots have, by tradition, pointed east, in line with Christian beliefs. But a council in the East Midlands has taken the controversial decision to position thousands of headstones in a new £4 million cemetery facing in a north-easterly direction. High Wood cemetery in Bulwell Muslims bury their dead facing north-east because they believe that they look over their...