John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Dignitaries from 92 countries attended his state funeral on November 25. and Robert F. Kennedy walk away from Kennedy's casket after lighting the Eternal Flame Initial press reports indicated that Kennedy would be buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, where his son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (who had died on August 9, 1963, two days after his premature birth) was buried. But the site for Kennedy's grave was quickly changed to the hillside just below Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery; some months earlier Kennedy had admired the location's peaceful atmosphere while visiting it with his friend, architect John Carl Warnecke. The initial suggestion to bury Kennedy at Arlington appears to have been made by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy agreed to the change. According to several published accounts, she drew inspiration from a number of sources. One was the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which she and Kennedy had seen during a visit to France in 1961. She also took inspiration from the novel The Candle in the Wind (the fourth book from the collection The Once and Future King by T. H. White), which was part of the inspiration for the 1960 stage musical Camelot (the cast recording was a favorite of the Kennedys). Her brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, counseled against an eternal flame, worried that it might appear ostentatious or that it would compete with other such memorials at Arlington National Cemetery; The Corps also installed a gas line to a propane tank away to feed the torch. The site was about halfway up the hill on which Arlington House stands. The grave was placed so that it had a view of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, and was aligned with them. Kennedy's brothers, Robert and Ted, symbolically lit the flame after her. A small white cross was placed at the head of Arabella's grave, and a small white headstone placed at the head of Patrick's. During the funeral, flowers were laid on the hillside above the grave site. After the erection of the fence, flowers were placed inside the enclosure, leaning against the uphill side of the fence. A canvas-covered circular wooden walkway was built from Sheridan Drive to the grave site to give members of the public access to the grave. ==Development of a permanent grave site==

from the Kennedy grave site John Carl Warnecke, a friend of the Kennedys, visited the grave with Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy on November 28, to discuss themes and plans for a permanent memorial. Warnecke immediately concluded that the permanent grave must be simple and incorporate the eternal flame. But the Army was also considering removing the flame, as no such memorials were permitted in Arlington National Cemetery. On December 3, 1963, the Army concluded that the Kennedy plot was not part of the official burial section of Arlington National Cemetery, and agreed to continue to allow an eternal flame. An extensive research project was conducted in which hundreds of famous tombs (such as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and Grant's Tomb) as well as all existing presidential burial sites were documented and images of them collected. Warnecke discussed design concepts with more than 40 architects, sculptors, painters, landscape architects, stonemasons, calligraphers, and liturgical experts The walkways were intended to overcome the steep 45-degree incline of the hill up to the burial plot. The northeastern side of the elliptical plaza would be enclosed by a low wall inscribed with quotes from Kennedy's speeches. The walkways, elliptical plaza, and terrace were designed to accommodate more than 50,000 visitors per day. At the time of the design's unveiling, the quotations for the low wall had not yet been selected by Mrs. Kennedy. ==Construction of the new grave site==

The plan was for work to begin in the fall of 1965 and be completed by the fall of 1966. Work on the John F. Kennedy burial site continued over the next two and a half years. The Washington Gas and Light Company offered to build, maintain, and supply gas to the eternal flame at no expense. The final burner was a specially designed torch created by the Institute of Gas Technology with an electrical ignition which kept the flame lit in wind or rain and which fed the gas oxygen to create the correct color. A debate broke out between providers of bottled propane gas and line-fed natural gas as to which source of fuel should be used to supply the eternal flame. The debate was so vigorous that it broke out in public in March 1964. The cost of construction of the actual grave site was estimated at $309,000. A $1.4 million contract for construction was awarded to Aberthaw Construction in mid-July 1965. Prior to construction, several design changes were made to the Kennedy grave site. The retaining wall behind the grave was removed, and the hill landscaped to allow an unobstructed view of Arlington House. In November 1965, the contractors estimated that the site would be finished by July 1966. For a time in the fall of 1966, the Army considered floodlighting the site to permit night-time ceremonies, but this plan was quickly discarded. In mid-October 1966, design changes and construction delays had forced the opening of the new burial site to early 1967. ==Consecration of the new grave==

The permanent John F. Kennedy grave site opened with little announcement or fanfare on March 15, 1967. A few days before, the eternal flame had been moved from its temporary location to the new site. The reburial of the bodies occurred on the evening of March 14, after Arlington National Cemetery had closed. Earth over the existing grave was removed, and a small crane was used to lift the burial vault (which remained unopened) from the old grave and place it in the new one. The event was unannounced. Exhumation began at 6:19 PM and was complete at 9:00 PM. Consecration of the new burial site occurred at 7:00 AM on March 15, 1967, in a driving rain. The ceremony, which took 20 minutes, was attended by President Lyndon B. Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy, and several members of the Kennedy family. Cardinal Cushing presided over the consecration. The final cost of the entire project was $2.2 million. Landscaping around the permanent site was not complete at the time of its consecration, and continued for several more weeks. ==Operation of the site==

One spontaneous act of respect at the site was curbed almost immediately. Jacqueline Kennedy had requested that a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces (the Green Berets) be part of the military honor squad at Kennedy's burial service. Also laid on the greenery were the insignia of a U.S. Army military policeman and the shoulder braid from a soldier in the 3rd US Infantry Regiment. Alterations caused by new burials at the grave site Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. An expansion to the John F. Kennedy grave site was dedicated in 1971 to accommodate Robert Kennedy's grave. Robert F. Kennedy's resting place is only about southwest from the terrace at the John F. Kennedy site. Robert Kennedy is buried on the upslope side of the walkway, his burial vault marked by a white cross and a slate headstone set flush with the earth. A low granite wall similar to the one at the John F. Kennedy terrace contains quotations from famous Robert F. Kennedy speeches, and a small reflecting pool. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was buried at the site alongside Kennedy following her death in May 1994. Senator Edward M. Kennedy was buried about south of Robert Kennedy's memorial between two maple trees shortly after his death on August 25, 2009, from brain cancer. The Arlington Oak The 220-year-old "Arlington Oak", which stood off-center within the Kennedy memorial grave site area, was uprooted and killed on August 27, 2011, during Hurricane Irene. The grave site was closed to the public for two days to remove the tree and stump, but reopened on August 30. Maintenance Arlington National Cemetery experts said in 2001 that it cost about $200 a month to keep the flame burning. Its original, custom-manufactured ignition system, contained in a box buried a few feet from the grave, controlled the flow of gas and oxygen to the flame and activated a 20,000-volt spark ignition electrode near the gas burner whenever the flame was extinguished. In 2012, the automatic ignition system began clicking audibly. In early 2013, a $350,000 contract was awarded for upgrading the system. During the work the permanent flame was extinguished after being transferred to a temporary flame to one side. The refurbishment replaced the original burner with one not requiring a separate oxygen supply, laid new gas lines, relocated gas pressure regulators, added controls to improve energy efficiency, and replaced electrical lines. The flame was returned to the upgraded permanent eternal flame on May 17, 2013, and the temporary flame extinguished. In 2010, the carved inscriptions in the low stone wall in front of the site were renewed, which power cleaning and weather had made difficult to read. The Knights of Columbus donated $6,000 to have the letters darkened and more deeply incised in time for the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's inauguration. Gordon Ponsford, a sculptor who restored several major monuments at Arlington National Cemetery, performed the work. In August 1967, an exceptionally heavy rain extinguished the permanent flame and flooding of electrical equipment disabled the spark igniter. In both cases the flame was quickly relit manually. The Emigrant Flame In 2013, the Eternal Flame was shared for the first time in its history. On June 18, a U.S. Army honor guard accompanied Irish Minister of State Paul Kehoe, T.D., in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Kennedy grave site. An Irish Army officer, accompanied by an Irish Army honor guard, lit a lamp in a metal burner (The lamp and burner were created by the Bullfinch company, which also designed the torches for the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay.) which traversed the Irish Sea and sailed up the River Barrow to New Ross ==Cultural influence==

Immediately after Kennedy's burial, the grave and Eternal Flame were being visited by 50,000 people per day. The presence of the grave also boosted attendance at Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy's funeral had been televised live, with 93 percent of all American homes watching. Satellites beamed the proceedings to another 23 countries, where another 600 million viewers watched. The stamp also used the words "And the glow from that fire can truly light the world"—an excerpt from Kennedy's inaugural address. A mentally ill individual attempted to throw red paint on the grave in August 1971. A 23-year-old Army veteran committed suicide at the grave in 1972 by plunging a knife into his chest. In November 1982, an intoxicated Salvadoran immigrant broke into the cemetery at night, knelt before the flame, and had a heart attack; he fell into the flame and died. In 1997, thieves pried loose one of the paving stones from the terrace in front of the Eternal Flame and attempted to make off with it. They gave up after realizing the stone was too heavy to move. ==See also==