Navarre armed service death not allowed to be buried at Arlington

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/soldier-denied-burial-at-arlington-national-cemetery/vi-BBkqpuq

I kind of agree with the Army, but feel very bad for the family.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Funeral-Information/Scheduling-a-Funeral/Establishing-Eligibility

Army is correct, it was training. But I side with the family.

The Army is FOS here. The guy was on active duty orders performing his mission to train for the next conflict. Like his father said, it's allegedly a TFI (total force integration) and "one team one fight." You'd be surprised at the numbers of reservists in the deployed location at any given time. In Kuwait on one deployment, 51% of the wing at that location was NG or Reservists which was a point proudly announced by the Wing King at the time hailing the ability of the PT folks being able to do the job of the active duty folks and not having any slack occur based on personnel in place. As a matter of fact, we set multiple records of sorties, flight hours, and every other reportable data used to determine mission readiness and capability. Reservists and National Guardsmen have been used picking up the slack of the active duty that cannot perform all of the missions that the DOD gives them. I know the AF Reserves and Air National Guard comprise 4% of the budget for the AF, yet we carry out 21% of the day to day missions 24/7/365 all across the globe.

This SSgt deserves to be buried at Arlington. He was participating in some of the most arduous and demanding training we have in the military as a SOF member. If you are going to use us as more than just a supplement to the active duty, by God give us the same benefits and such. If the Reserves and NG was cut totally out of the picture, this nation could not function militarily. We would be a hollowed out and battle ineffective force. The days of the traditional strategic reserve that gets called up maybe once in a 20 year career are over. If the active duty follows through on the current plan of revamping the pay system, the Reserves and NG will have to play an even larger part to continue with the ops tempo because all the new system will do is punish those who opt to stay for 20 by reducing their retirement by 20%. The whole 401K thing is smoke and mirrors. We already have a TSP in place that acts in the same manner. A huge gutting of the active duty NCO Corps will follow if this plan is implemented. Anyhow, bury this man with full honors. He was only doing what 99.5% of you cannot do or will not do. Like he told his dad and mom, "If not me, then who?"

Looks like the rules changed in 2002 and no longer allow for reservists on training to be buried at Arlington.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/eligib.htm

A shame. I so feel for this family. Very sad.

It's a technicality that Congress should fix. It would only take Obama's pen and. Phone to fix it. Wonder why he chooses to ignore this?

Reservists and NG need further breaks on retirement too. We can now use activation periods of 90 days or more to come off the actual age 60 rule to start cashing checks and be eligible for Tricare like active duty.
For every deployment since jan 08, you can subtract that from age 60 and get paid early. I can get
Mine at 59.5 now, but we should get to use anything after 9-11 as well. I'm getting robbed of 33
Additional months I could retire draw
My pay early.