Was talking with a friend about a classmate who served in Vietnam. Honorable Discharge, as far as I know. He later committed 2 murders in the 1970s and has been is prison since then. 2 life sentences with no parole.
Will he be eligible to be buried in National Military Cemetery?

Looks like he's eligible

https://www.cem.va.gov/cem/bur...enefits/eligible.asp

I seem to remember a similar case where the family sued to have his remains buried in a National Cemetery. If I recall correctly he was allowed to be buried there because his service was honorable.

Then again, I am older and the memory may not be as good as it used to be.

With the activist judges on the bench today, they might just extend a judicial middle finger to the VA and allow it to happen.

This is from 2017, it briefly mentions a 1997 law preventing the burial of Timothy McVeigh. THAT may deny him a plot.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.cfc130855b5d

Recent exhumation part of law keeping killers, rapists out of veterans cemeteries

By Dave Collins August 13, 2017

HARTFORD, Conn. — The recent exhumation of an Army Vietnam veteran’s body from the Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery was a rare invocation of federal laws aimed at keeping murderers and rapists out of veterans burial grounds, federal and state officials say.

The remains of Guillermo Aillon were disinterred from the Middletown cemetery July 3, after state veterans’ affairs officials learned that he had been serving a life prison sentence for fatally stabbing his estranged wife and her parents in North Haven in 1972. It’s not clear where the remains were taken.

Only one other person appears to have been exhumed from a U.S. veterans’ cemetery under a 2013 federal law that gave the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to dig up the remains of murderers and rapists, according to the VA.

In 2014, the body of Army veteran Michael LeShawn Anderson was removed from the Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Mich. Authorities said Anderson killed Alicia Koehl, wounded three other people and killed himself in a 2012 shooting in Indianapolis. The 2013 law, named after Koehl, specifically authorized the exhumation of Anderson.

Burying convicted murderers and rapists at veterans’ cemeteries was banned by a 1997 federal law, which was aimed at preventing Oklahoma City bomber and Army veteran Timothy McVeigh from being interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

The law prohibits people sentenced to life in prison or death on convictions for federal or state capital crimes and certain sexual offenses from being buried in national veterans cemeteries and other veterans burial grounds — such as the Connecticut cemetery — that receive federal funding.

But exhumation authority didn’t exist until the 2013 law, which also was made to apply to people who committed murders and rapes but were not available for trial and not convicted. The law applies only to veterans buried after it took effect on Dec. 23, 2013, with the exception of Anderson.

The remains of another veteran convicted of murder, Russell Wayne Wagner, were removed from Arlington National Cemetery under an order approved by Congress in 2006 as part of a veterans’ bill. Wagner killed an elderly couple in Hagerstown, Md., in 1994.

Connecticut officials did not know about Aillon’s convictions because he was transferred from prison to a hospital before he died in 2014 and his death certificate listed the location as the hospital, said Thomas Saadi, spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Commissioner Sean Connolly.

“It’s a very rare occurrence,” Saadi said of exhumation. “The Aillon situation was very unique.”

Saadi said the state has since required funeral directors to attest that veterans whose families have applied for them to be buried in the state veterans’ cemetery were not convicted of murder or rape.

Relatives of Aillon did not return messages seeking comment. They previously have said they were unaware of the burial restrictions and were upset with the exhumation plans.

At the Michigan cemetery, Anderson was buried with full military honors, despite Koehl’s killing.

“It was just a total insult,” Koehl’s father-in-law, Frank Koehl, told the Detroit Free Press.

Anderson’s mother, Debra Graham, said her son’s remains were relocated to another cemetery.

“I couldn’t believe it. It hurt so bad,” she told the Associated Press, referring to the exhumation. “A lot of pain and grief. I try not to think about it. I try to think about the good times we had.”


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Here's the full text of the 2013 law, I cannot find the 1997 Timothy McVeigh law.

https://www.congress.gov/113/p...5/PLAW-113publ65.pdf

A double murderer?

Why not plant him in the prison cemetery?

e. Persons Found Guilty of a Capital Crime

Under 38 U.S.C. § 2411, interment or memorialization in a VA national cemetery or in Arlington National Cemetery is prohibited if a person is convicted of a Federal or State capital crime, for which a sentence of imprisonment for life or the death penalty may be imposed and the conviction is final. Federal officials may not inter in Veterans cemeteries persons who are shown by clear and convincing evidence to have committed a Federal or State capital crime but were unavailable for trial due to death or flight to avoid prosecution. Federally funded State veterans cemeteries must also adhere to this law. This prohibition is also extended to furnishing a Presidential Memorial Certificate, a burial flag, and a headstone or marker.

f. Persons convicted of Certain Sex Offenses

Under 38 U.S.C. § 2411, interment or memorialization in a VA national cemetery or in Arlington National Cemetery is prohibited if a person is convicted of a Tier III sex offense, who was sentenced to a minimum of life imprisonment and whose conviction is final. Federally funded State and Tribal organization Veterans cemeteries must also adhere to this law. This prohibition also applies to Presidential Memorial Certificate, burial flag, and headstone and marker benefits.

g. Subversive Activities

Any person convicted of subversive activities after September 1, 1959, shall have no right to burial in a national cemetery from and after the date of commission of such offense, based on periods of active military service commencing before the date of the commission of such offense, nor shall another person be entitled to burial on account of such an individual. Eligibility will be reinstated if the President of the United States grants a pardon.

Thanks for the replies.
The POS I am referring to use to be a high school buddy. We even roommates on our senior trip. Him and another guy joined the army shortly after graduation.
I wasn't exactly an angel back in those days but sure am glad I parted ways from him!