AUTHORS

Author: Kevin M. Hymel
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Completing the Mission: Volunteers Remove Wreaths Despite the Cold

By Kevin M. Hymel on 1/15/2025

“We’re here to complete the mission we started in December,” said Chris MacArthur of Alexandria, Virginia, with his arms full of holiday wreaths. MacArthur was one of 2,000 volunteers who braved icy roads and temperatures below 20 degrees to retrieve wreaths from headstones in the snow-covered sections of Arlington National Cemetery on Jan. 11, 2025. When asked if he had second thoughts about coming to the cemetery when he saw the morning snow, he said, “Not for one second.”

“It Brings Me Peace": Thousands Participate in Wreaths Across America Day at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel on 12/18/2024

On Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, thousands of people braved cold temperatures to honor the country’s fallen by laying holiday wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) — one of more than 4,900 locations nationwide to participate in Wreaths Across America Day

Descendants Visit Grave of First Soldier Buried at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel on 12/10/2024

Robert Christman sat in his walker-rollator in Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 27 as his niece handed him a wreath with a bright red bow on top. He started to lay the wreath at the headstone of U.S. Army Pvt. William Christman, his distant cousin, but paused. He then stood up, bent over and laid the wreath. When asked why he stood, he explained, “It’s a thank you and a promise to keep it going.”

Carrying History: A Pallbearer’s Reflection on President Kennedy’s Final Journey

By Kevin M. Hymel on 11/27/2024

“We came through here,” James Felder said as he stood at the base of President John F. Kennedy’s gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC), recalling how he helped carry the President’s casket along with seven other military pallbearers up a hill to the burial spot

Seven Tomb Guards Receive Rare Tomb Badge in Record Pinning Ceremony

By Kevin M. Hymel on 11/21/2024

In a unique ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2024, seven Tomb Guards simultaneously received the rarely awarded Tomb Badge (officially referred to as the Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge). The event may have set a record as the largest pinning ceremony in recent history.

ANC Celebrates Fall with Its Last Horticulture Tour of the Season

By Kevin M. Hymel on 11/15/2024

On Nov. 1, 2024, Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) Horticulturist Kelly Wilson led a group of about 20 gardening enthusiasts through the cemetery, with red, orange and yellow leaves crunching underfoot, to explain the cemetery’s trees, plants and flowers on the season’s last Fall Horticulture Walking Tour.

Honoring Sacrifice: New York All-Female Veterans Honor Flight Lay Wreath at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel on 11/12/2024

Navy veteran Dawn Cook sat in her wheelchair on the south side of Arlington National Cemetery’s Memorial Plaza as she and three other female veterans waited for their wreath-laying ceremony to begin. They had flown in from Binghamton, New York, on Nov. 3, 2024, as part of the Twin Tiers honor flight of 20 female veterans and their guardians to honor the country’s fallen.

New U.S. Mint Quarter Honors Zitkala-Ša's Advocacy and Artistic Legacy

By Kevin M. Hymel on 11/8/2024

The contributions of Native American activist, writer and composer Zitkala-Ša (buried in Section 2) to the arts and human rights recently earned her likeness on the U.S. Mint’s latest quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program.

Nephew Honors Uncle's Memory After Pearl Harbor Tragedy

By Kevin M. Hymel on 11/6/2024

Roy Bubbs cried at the funeral service for an uncle he had never met. His uncle, U.S. Navy Fireman Third Class Harry R. Holmes, died onboard the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

Green Berets, Dignitaries and Relatives Honor President John F. Kennedy’s Legacy

By Kevin M. Hymel on 10/30/2024

On Oct. 17, 2024, President John F. Kennedy’s voice echoed across the hills of Arlington National Cemetery as a recording from a speech he delivered at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, on Oct. 12, 1961, played over loudspeakers. Two lines of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers stood at attention on either side of the president’s grave. “If freedom is to be saved,” JFK’s voice told the large crowd gathered at his gravesite in Section 45, the United States would need, “a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and therefore a new and wholly and different kind of military training.”