Some parents can now be buried alongside vets unless they committed suicide

Some parents can now be buried alongside vets
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 1, 2012 18:43:01 EST
The Veterans Affairs Department has announced new burial rules to make parents of some deceased veterans eligible for interment in national veterans cemeteries.

The policy, announced Tuesday in a notice in the Federal Register, implements the Corey Shea Act, passed by Congress in 2010 as part of a comprehensive veterans benefits bill that allows parents to be buried alongside a service member who had no surviving spouse or children at the time of death. No more than two parents could be buried alongside a veteran, meaning plots could not be used for two parents plus an adoptive stepparent, for example.

The bill is named for Army Spc. Corey M. Shea, who died in Iraq on Nov. 12, 2008. He was 21 years old when he was shot by an Iraqi army soldier, and his mother, Denise Anderson, pressed Congress to allow her to be buried alongside her son when she dies. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., were chief sponsors of the legislation that expanded the burial benefit to include parents who would otherwise not be able to be interred.

There are several limitations:

• Parental burial privileges apply only for service members killed by hostile fire or in certain training accidents since Oct. 7, 2001. Hostile fire, in this instance,

excludes a service member who died of a self-inflicted wound, from combat fatigue or due to the elements.

Training accidents cover only injuries incurred while performing authorized training in preparation for a combat mission.
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