A group of military chaplains and chaplaincy supporters are calling on government and Arlington National Cemetery officials to update the hallowed graveyard’s chaplains’ monuments.
“This is a no-brainer,” said retired Navy Capt. Jack Lea, executive director of the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces, an umbrella organization for 95 faith groups and the professional clergy representatives who endorse military and VA chaplains. “When did our nation decide it was no longer going to honor chaplains’ service?”
At the heart of the issue are a group of stone monuments in Section 2 at Arlington recognizing military chaplains from all branches who died during their service. It is currently 81 names short, including some from as far back as the Korean and Vietnam Wars and as recent as Iraq and Afghanistan. In both 2021 and 2022, Congress directed in the National Defense Authorization Acts that their names be added to the Arlington Chaplains Monuments.
What’s the issue?
Cemetery officials are putting the task off, citing an obscure Arlington requirement that veterans must be deceased for at least a quarter-century before having their names added to any monument, NCMAF members said.
Arlington officials did not respond to Military Families’ request for comment. NCMAF, meanwhile, has spent approximately one decade working around the 25-year rule without success, despite the fact that Korean and Vietnam War-era chaplains hail from further back.
NCMAF attorneys say that Christine Wormuth, Army secretary, has the legal authority to waive the 25-year requirement. The signed and passed 2022 NDAA even includes an amendment stating, “The Secretary of the Army may permit NCMAF … to make such other updates and corrections to the memorial that the Secretary determines necessary.”
What’s more, NCMAF has volunteered both the funding and materials to update the monument, meaning the government and Arlington would incur zero costs. NCMAF dollars would also replace the current concrete Protestant Chaplains Monument with a new granite piece in the same shape and size.
“The monument they have there now is composed of concrete and is staining and crumbling,” said Lea. “Arlington actually has to spend maintenance dollars to fix this thing on a regular basis. But we have a pledge to replace that with a granite monument like the other stones at Arlington, which would alleviate the need for continued maintenance. They have been unwilling to say yes so far.”
Public pressure
NCMAF members have attended at least four Arlington committee meetings attempting to find a resolution. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Harold Robinson, a NCMAF volunteer and 36-year Jewish chaplain, pointed out that all chaplains who have died in service have been Catholic, Protestant or Jewish. Once the 81 names are added to their respective monuments — whenever that may be — NCMAF would be happy to sign a memorandum of understanding to erect an “all chaplains” monument going forward, no matter their faith, he said.
“All you’re saying by putting this off is that in another 15 years, we’re going to have to go through this all over again,” Robinson said, referring to Arlington’s required process to add monument names. “And at what level does the director of Arlington National Cemetery get to supersede the law?”
Retired Air Force fighter pilot Derek Jones now oversees Anglican military chaplains as a bishop. He pointed out the flood of support this project has had, including from politicians.
“Virtually every recognized veteran organization supports this work, including the American Legion who passed a unanimous resolution at their national convention in 2022, and it has bipartisan support from nearly 100% of Congress,” he said. “Yet [an Arlington decisionmaker] has successfully kept this off the Secretary of the Army’s desk to authorize the work to begin.”
NCMAF is hoping that will soon change and urges citizens to contact their elected representatives on its behalf, encouraging Wormuth to expedite the waiver approval.
“As a chaplain, you don’t like to make a lot of waves,” said Lea. “But at this point, we’re stymied and can’t get a positive resolution without shining a spotlight on this problem.
“You’d think they would be falling all over themselves to accept our offer.”
