With Memorial Day coming up, #FlashbackFriday travels back to 1998 to revisit an Exchange Post story about an associate whose dedication to serving those who serve and have served went far beyond her Exchange job.
Susan McElroy was a Fort Belvoir Home and Garden Center manager who joined the Exchange in the early ’80s. She was also a member of the Army Arlington Ladies, a group of volunteers who attend funerals at Arlington National Cemetery to ensure that no Soldier is buried alone.
The Arlington Ladies began in 1948, when Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Hoyt Vandenberg and his wife, Gladys, routinely attended funerals and noticed that some services had only a military chaplain present. The Vandenbergs believed that a member of the Air Force family should also attend, so Gladys Vandenberg asked her friends to start attending services. She ultimately formed a group from the Officers’ Wives Club.
In 1973, Gen. Creighton Abrams’ wife, Julia, founded the Army’s version of the group. Navy and Coast Guard versions followed in 1985 and 2006, respectively. The Marines do not officially have a group because a representative of the Marine Commandant attends every funeral.
“The primary reason we attend the funeral is the Soldier,” McElroy told the Exchange Post. said. “We are there for two reasons, one because we care and, two, so that no one in the United States Army, regardless of rank, will ever be buried alone in Arlington Cemetery. We are there for every burial every day, and many times we are the only ones there.”
McElroy joined Arlington Ladies in 1982, which was around the time she joined the Exchange. By January 1998, when the Exchange Post wrote about her membership in the group, she had participated in more than 400 funerals for everyone from the rank of private first class to four-star general.
She had known of the group when she was asked to join, but like most people didn’t know the full extent of an Arlington Lady’s duties.
“Sometimes we have as many as 14 burials in one day split between two Ladies,” she said. “The average number is seven or eight burials a day. It doesn’t matter if it’s pouring rain, biting cold or unbearably hot, we are all committed never to miss our scheduled day. It’s an honor and our way of helping Army families.”
McElroy’s husband, Bill, who retired as a command sergeant major after 28 years of duty, served as a member of the Old Guard at Fort Myer. That sparked Susan’s interest in Arlington National Cemetery. She often visited the cemetery and took her children through the cemetery, teaching them respect for the men and women who fought in every war.
“When you hear the first few notes of Taps escape from the bugle, it’s so hard to keep tears inside,” she said. “It makes no difference that I don’t know the Soldier being lowered into the ground. When the bugler starts it’s hard to describe. Once you’ve been through a funeral at Arlington, you feel it.”
According to the Arlington National Cemetery website, the criteria to become an Arlington Lady differs for each military service, but each Lady has some connection to the respective service, generally as a current or former military member or as a military spouse The Ladies are an official part of the funeral, representing the military service’s chief of staff or equivalent. They present cards of condolence to the next of kin from the military service chief and spouse on behalf of the service family, and from the Arlington Lady herself.
McElroy retired from the Exchange in 2006 after 25 years of service, most of them at Exchanges in the Washington area. She passed away in 2017.
You can read more about the Arlington Ladies here.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, Arlington National Cemetery.
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