Burial at sea
Here's a wiki link on the
subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial_at_sea
Now here's a
story, too:
By Bill Vidonic
Robert Beeman won't have a grave marker or tombstone to honor the memory of his mother, a Navy veteran.
Robert Beeman won't have a grave marker or tombstone to honor the memory of his mother, a Navy veteran.
But
he could stand on the shore of Virginia Beach and cast his gaze on the Atlantic
Ocean, Cheryl L. Beeman's final resting place.
“Since
the time I can remember, all she would say is, ‘I want to be buried at sea.'
I'm OK with that. I know that's what she wants,” the West Deer man said. “I'll
know what latitude and longitude she was buried at, so anytime I go to the
beach, I can say that I'm seeing her.”
The
Environmental Protection Agency says about 2,700 Americans were buried at sea
each year from 2008 through 2010, the latest figures available. Only about 1
percent of those burials involved a body and casket; the others were cremated
remains, or cremains.
Cremains
must be deposited in the sea at least 3 miles from shore under EPA regulations.
Bodies and caskets must be the same distance from shore and at least 600 feet
deep. Caskets must be weighted and drilled with holes to ensure that they sink.
The
Navy said it conducted 1,053 sea burials in 2012, and 967 by late December last
year. The Navy and Coast Guard, and private companies that perform the service,
must report burials to the EPA within 30 days.
Sea
burials date to at least the 1400s, the Navy said, as a standard part of Nordic
burial rites. The Navy and Coast Guard perform services with full military
honors for veterans, including a three-round volley and the playing of “Taps.”
They do not charge for the service.
People
seek such burials for many reasons, including that “the veteran felt a kinship
to the ocean after service,” or the family didn't pay for a grave site, said
Dana Swope, Navy and Marine Corps Mortuary Affairs branch head.
Cheryl
Beeman, 67, of West Deer died on Nov. 26. Her body remains in Schellhaas
Funeral Home in Bakerstown, awaiting a call from the Navy. After that, the
funeral home has two weeks to transport the body to Norfolk before a Navy
vessel departs port. The call may not occur for months.
The
Navy does not allow families to attend services because the warship usually
remains out to sea for six to nine months on deployment.
“I
think it'll be neat that they're doing (the burial) on an actual maneuver, on a
warship,” Robert Beeman said.
The
warship will fly the flag that adorned Beeman's casket for a day and return it
to her family. The Navy provides photos of the ceremony and the burial
location.
The
Coast Guard sometimes allows families to attend a service, though that's rare,
said Chief Petty Officer Jennifer Foley.
Although
national statistics for Coast Guard burials were not available, Foley said, the
Coast Guard's District 1, which covers the Northeast, conducts 10 to 20 burials
a year.
The
Coast Guard allows casket burials only in rare instances, because its vessels
are not equipped to hold a coffin in refrigeration.
The
EPA sets regulations to avoid problems such as one in September 2010, when a
body surfaced near a South Florida beach.
News
reports said the family of Scott Lasky, 48, who died of Lou Gehrig's disease,
honored his dying wish to be buried at sea by placing his body on dry ice,
driving from South Carolina to Florida and then riding a boat about 4 miles out
from shore before placing his body in the water. Wrappings and weights on the
corpse came undone, and a fisherman found the body when it surfaced.
It
wasn't clear whether authorities charged the family with any offenses.
Read more on the story: http://triblive.com/usworld/nation/5365693-74/navy-sea-burials#ixzz2piRf5Lb6
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