AUTHORS

TIMOTHY JAMES LAWSON

USS Oklahoma Sailors Find Final Resting Place at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 12/7/2022

Seaman Edward E. Casinger’s burial service on November 19, 2022, marked the twenty-eighth burial of a USS Oklahoma crewman at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). It also marked an eighty-year journey from the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to today. Burials of Oklahoma crewmen have a profound effect on those who make them possible, from the scientists at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to the sailors who lay them to rest.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

Joint Honor Guard Epitomizes Professionalism and Bearing

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 12/5/2022

“Honor Guard!” Capt. Andrew Borrebach bellowed to the approximately 250 members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard who lined both sides of Arlington National Cemetery’s mall leading to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “Attention!” The men and women snapped to attention, standing ramrod straight. About ten minutes later, the captain called out, “Honor Guard! At ease!” Everyone separated their legs and held their rifles away from their bodies with their right hands, while placing their left hands behind their backs.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

Decorated Korean War Marine Veteran Laid to Rest

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 10/17/2022

Betty O’Donnell insisted on standing to receive the flag that had been folded over her husband’s urn. Her husband, Major Brendan P. O’Donnell, served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. At Major O’Donnell’s funeral service at Arlington National Cemetery on October 14, 2022, one of Mrs. O’Donnell’s relatives helped her to her feet, and she proudly accepted the flag. 

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

A Brief History of Gold Star Mothers and Family’s Day

The origin of what would become Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day started with a simple accessory: a black armband with a gilt star.

Posthumous Medal of Honor Recipient Laid to Rest

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 9/16/2022

U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker, who earned the Medal of Honor posthumously, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on September 14, 2022. Baker gave his life trying to save the lives of his bomber crew and the crews around him during the bombing of Romanian oil fields and refineries—the famed Ploesti Raid—during World War II.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

Thunderbirds Honor Air Force Twin Generals Buried with Their Wives at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 9/14/2022

On September 14, 2022, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron flew a unique formation over Arlington National Cemetery to honor the burial of twin brothers Lt. Gen. Charles “Buck” and Maj. Gen. Cuthbert “Bill” Pattillo and their wives. Typically, one F-16 pulls out of the six-aircraft pattern to create the missing-man formation, but in this flyover, two pulled out to honor the two former Thunderbird pilots. “We don’t have a name for it,” said Capt. Kaity Toner, a fellow Thunderbird pilot. “We just call it the ‘Pattillo Pull.’”

The Thunderbirds were honoring their own with the formation, since both Pattillo brothers helped found the Air Force’s first demonstration team, the Sky Blazers, and the subsequent Thunderbirds. The two F-16s that pulled out of the formation were on the left and right wing, both of which positions the Pattillo twins flew.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

Vietnam Veteran Marine MOH Recipient Laid to Rest at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 8/25/2022

When the Marine veterans of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, First Marines, recall Sergeant Major John Canley in combat, they use one word to describe him: calm.

While fighting in Vietnam’s Battle of Hue City in February 1968, enemy fire injured Canley’s company commander. Canley took over the company and led his Marines for days, helping to drive the enemy out of the city in house-to-house combat. During the fighting, Canley exposed himself to enemy fire several times to rescue Marines or to drop a satchel charge on an enemy strongpoint. His actions at the Battle of Hue City earned him the Medal of Honor.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

Bagpiper for the Wild Blue Yonder

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 8/9/2022

On June 17, 2022, as Air Force Col. Charles McGee’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery came to an end, the sound of bagpipes filled the air. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Adam Tianello, dressed in a unique uniform which included an Air Force tartan kilt, played “Amazing Grace” for the mourners, providing a poignant conclusion to the ceremony.

By the time Tianello, The U.S. Air Force Band’s only bagpiper, blew into his bagpipes to end the McGee funeral, he had already performed at about 1,575 funerals. He only plays for funerals for Air Force colonels and above (per U.S. Air Force regulation). “I will play any tune the family will want to hear,” said Tianello. Yet he does not play for the departed. “I play for the people that are there, to help them with the grieving process.”

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

WWII Veteran Killed in Burma Buried at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 8/2/2022

Brothers Peter and Robert Esmay never knew their uncles Myles and Gardner Esmay, both of whom died in service to their country during World War II. Myles Esmay died fighting with the U.S. Army to capture the town of Myitkyina in Burma on June 7, 1944. Almost a year later, Gardner Esmay died aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill when two suicide kamikaze aircraft struck on May 11, 1945. Their brother Irwin Esmay, who witnessed the attack on the Bunker Hill as a sailor on another ship, survived the war and returned home to father five children, two of whom were Peter and Robert.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel

Air Force Chaplain Retires After More Than 2,000 Funerals at ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 7/26/2022

On Monday, July 18, 2022, after conducting more than 2,000 funerals over an eight-year span at Arlington National Cemetery, Chaplain (Col.) John L. Elliott, Jr. performed his last funeral as a uniformed Air Force officer. As a Reserve officer, he supported more funerals than active-duty Air Force chaplains serving a two- or three-year tour.

Elliott has also used his yearly ten months of active duty to conduct funerals, when he was technically attached to the Air Force District of Washington and the Pentagon. With so much experience, the Air Force often gave him a heavy work load. He once performed fifteen funerals in one week.

Contract Historian
Kevin M. Hymel