AUTHORS

Author: Kevin M. Hymel
37 found

U.S. Navy Sailor, Killed at Pearl Harbor, Laid to Rest at Arlington

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 11/22/2022

At the funeral service for Seaman Edward Eugene "Bud" Casinger on November 19, 2022, Chaplain (Lt.) Dirk Robinson spoke about the tragic sinking of the battleship USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Casinger, only 21 years old at the time, was one of those lost in the attack.

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Kevin M. Hymel

Native American Heritage Month Talks

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 11/18/2022

On November 16, 2022, ANC’s Command Curator Rod Gainer gave three talks on Chief Plenty Coups, the last traditional chief of the Crow Nation (Apsáalooke), and the artifacts he left at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

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Kevin M. Hymel

Ord and Weitzel Gate Dedication

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 11/9/2022

Under sunny skies on November 8, 2022, seven leaders from Arlington National Cemetery (ANC), the U.S. Army, and contracted engineering firms cut the ribbon at the restored Ord and Weitzel Gate, the northern pedestrian entrance to ANC.  

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Kevin M. Hymel

Penn State University Students Tour ANC

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 11/2/2022

Horticulture Chief Steve Van Hoven explains the cemetery's history in front of Arlington House.
​ (Kevin M. Hymel, Oct. 20, 2022)

“Cemeteries are very interesting places to work for horticulture,” Arlington National Cemetery’s Horticulture Chief Steve Van Hoven told a group of horticulture and landscape contracting students from Penn State University at the Tanner Amphitheater on October 20, 2022. Van Hoven and the ANC Horticulture staff addressed the students to explain potential career options.

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Kevin M. Hymel

U.S. Marine Corps Firing Parties Honor the Fallen

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 10/25/2022

People attending an ANC funeral often flinch when the military firing party fires its first volley. That’s what happened at the funeral service for U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Brendan P. O’Donnell on October 14, 2022. By the second and third volleys, O’Donnell’s family and friends were more prepared.

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Kevin M. Hymel

95th Infantry Division World War II Veterans Honor Their Leader

By Kevin M. Hymel, Historian on 10/21/2022

“We’re here to honor our beloved general,” said Ceo Bauer, a World War II veteran who fought with the U.S. Army’ 95th Infantry Division, at the headstone of Major General Harry Twaddle on October 20, 2022.

Three veterans of the 95th, along with families and friends of the soldiers who served with the division, came to Arlington National Cemetery to remember Twaddle, lay two wreaths at his grave and tour the cemetery. 

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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. 

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Kevin M. Hymel

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.

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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.

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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.

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Kevin M. Hymel