Chapel / Arlington Service

Starting from the Old Post Chapel or Memorial Chapel

Arlington Media specializes in covering chapel services. We use multiple cameras dispersed around the chapel to capture every aspect a chapel service.

Chapel services can be requested for any type of authorized burial service at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC).  Availability is subject to the number of requests for chapel funeral services and is not decided by the chaplain section.  You may request the services of an organist and may request a military chaplain, if there will be no civilian religious leader present.  The content of a chapel service is dependent on the religious leader and the family, and ANC does not dictate content.

However, due to the large number of services at ANC, the actual chapel service can last no longer than 20 minutes. 

Chapel services can be held for a dependent, standard honors or full honors services.

Standard Honors
(Chapel Service)

Standard Honors Services are provided for enlisted service members, WO-1 through CW-3, and O-1 through O-3, interred/inurned at Arlington National Cemetery will receive honors provided by the decedent’s branch of service.

These honors include:

A Casket Team
(Body Bearers/Pallbearers)

A casket is carried foot first, except for that of a clergyman which is carried headfirst. U.S. flags over military caskets are placed so that the blue field is at the head and over the shoulder of the deceased to symbolize service to the nation.  The casket is draped before it arrives for services and remains draped until the flag is folded graveside. The cap and sword of the deceased is never displayed atop a flag-draped casket (nothing touches the flag). Caskets are transported to the cemetery in a hearse or caisson.

A Firing Party

The honors leader calls all honors participants to “present arms,” and commands the squad to fire their weapons in unison for a total of three volleys.  Military personnel and veterans solute facing the casket from the first volley to the last.

The tradition of three volleys comes from an old battlefield custom.  The two warring sides would cease hostilities in order to clear their dead from the battle ground. Firing three volleys meant that the dead had been properly cared for and that the side was ready to resume battle.

The Bugler

It is widely considered the most poignant moment of a military funeral. Again instead of facing the music it is appropriate to face the casket.  Military personnel salute from the first note to the last note fades, When the honor leader calls all honor participants to “order arms” and the Chaplin request mourners to be seated for the folding of the flag.

The American history of taps began during the Civil War when Union Army Capt. Robert Ellicombe discovered the body of his son on the battlefield.  The boy had been studying music in the south and without telling his father had enlisted in the Confederate Army.  In his uniform pocket was a series of musical notes composing a haunting melody.  The Union captain buried his Confederate Army son with a lone bugler playing the notes of taps.

Full Honors
(Chapel Service)

Those military members who obtained the grade of E-9, CW-4 and CW-5, and O-4 and above or service members, regardless of rank who receive the Medal of Honor or who are killed in action, may receive military funeral honors with funeral escorts provided by the decedent’s branch of service.

The elements of military funeral honors with escort include all the standard honors components, plus:

An Escort Element

A Military Band

A Caisson

Caparisoned (Riderless) Horse

Officers in the rank of colonel and above in the Army and the Marine Corps may be provided a caparisoned (riderless) horse, if available. 

A Cannon Salute

General/flag officers of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard may receive a cannon salute (17 guns for a four-star general, 15 for a three-star, 13 for a two-star, 11 for a one-star), if available. Minute Guns may be used for general officers/flag officers of the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps. The President of the United States is entitled to a 21-gun salute, while other high state officials receive 19 guns. 

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Arlington National Cemetery’s Official Website is: www.arlingtoncemetery.mil.