§ 553.43 - Eligibility for interment and inurnment in Army Post Cemeteries.

§ 553.43 Eligibility for interment and inurnment in Army Post Cemeteries.

Only those who qualify as a primarily eligible person or a derivatively eligible person are eligible for interment and inurnment in Army Post Cemeteries (except for the West Point Cemetery), unless otherwise prohibited as provided for in §§ 553.46 through 553.48, provided that the last period of active duty of the service member or veteran ended with an honorable discharge.

(a) Primarily eligible persons. The following are primarily eligible persons for purposes of interment:

(1) Any service member who dies on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces (except those service members serving on active duty for training only), if the General Courts Martial Convening Authority grants a certificate of honorable service.

(2) Any veteran retired from a Reserve component who served a period of active duty (other than for training), is carried on the official retired list, and is entitled to receive military retired pay.

(3) Any veteran retired from active military service and entitled to receive military retired pay.

(b) Derivatively eligible persons. The following individuals are derivatively eligible persons for purposes of interment who may be interred if space is available in the gravesite of the primarily eligible person:

(1) The spouse of a primarily eligible person who is or will be interred in an Army Post Cemetery in the same grave as the spouse. A former spouse of a primarily eligible person is not eligible for interment in an Army Post Cemetery under this section.

(2) A subsequently remarried spouse of a primarily eligible person who is remarried at the time of need, provided that there are no children from any subsequent marriage; that all children from the prior marriage to the primarily eligible person agree to the interment and relinquish any claim for interment in the same gravesite in a notarized statement(s); and that the new spouse, if still living and married to the subsequently remarried spouse, agrees to the interment and relinquishes any claim for interment. The Cemetery Responsible Official may cancel the subsequently remarried spouse's gravesite reservation, if any, consistent with § 553.40, and place the subsequently remarried spouse's remains in the same gravesite as the primarily eligible person.

(3) The spouse of an active duty service member or an eligible veteran, who was:

(i) Lost or buried at sea, temporarily interred overseas due to action by the Government, or officially determined to be missing in action;

(ii) Buried in a U.S. military cemetery maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission; or

(iii) Interred in Arlington National Cemetery as part of a group burial (the derivatively eligible spouse may not be buried in the group burial gravesite) and the active duty service member does not have a separate individual interment or inurnment location.

(4) A minor child or permanently dependent adult child of a primarily eligible person who is or will be interred in an Army Post Cemetery.

(5) The parents of a minor child or a permanently dependent adult child, whose remains were interred in an Army Post Cemetery based on the eligibility of a parent at the time of the child's death, unless eligibility of a parent is lost through divorce from the primarily eligible parent.