32 C.F.R. § 553.1

Current through September 30, 2024

Section 553.1 - Definitions

As used in this part, the following terms have these meanings:

Active duty. Full-time duty in the active military service of the United States.

(1) This includes:

(i) Active Reserve component duty performed pursuant to title 10, United States Code.

(ii) Service as a cadet or midshipman currently on the rolls at the U.S. Military, U.S. Naval, U.S. Air Force, or U.S. Coast Guard Academies.

(iii) Active duty for operational support.

(iv) Persons whose service has been determined to be active duty service pursuant to section 401 of the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977 (Pub. L. 95-202 ; 38 U.S.C. 106 note) as of 20 May 2016 and the remains of that person were not already formally interred or inurned as of 20 May 2016 or that person died on or after 20 May 2016.

(2) This does not include:

(i) Full-time duty performed under title 32, United States Code.

(ii) Active duty for training, initial entry training, annual training duty, or inactive-duty training for members of the Reserve components.

Active duty for operational support (formerly active duty for special work).

A tour of active duty for Reserve personnel authorized from military or Reserve personnel appropriations for work on Active component or Reserve component programs. The purpose of active duty for operational support is to provide the necessary skilled manpower assets to support existing or emerging requirements and may include training.

Active duty for training. A category of active duty used to provide structured individual and/or unit training, including on-the-job training, or educational courses to Reserve component members. Included in the active duty for training category are annual training, initial active duty for training, or any other training duty.

Annual training. The minimum period of active duty for training that Reserve members must perform each year to satisfy the training requirements associated with their Reserve component assignment.

Armed Forces. The U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force and their Reserve components.

Army National Military Cemeteries. Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery.

Category 4, 5, or 5+ Posts. Category 4, 5, or 5+ posts, including the equivalent classifications as determined by the Department of State that were used prior to 2004 or may be used subsequently.

Child, minor child, permanently dependent child, unmarried adult child.

(1)Child.

(i) Natural child of a primarily eligible person, born in wedlock;

(ii) Natural child of a female primarily eligible person, born out of wedlock;

(iii) Natural child of a male primarily eligible person, who was born out of wedlock and:

(A) Has been acknowledged in a writing signed by the male primarily eligible person;

(B) Has been judicially determined to be the male primarily eligible person's child;

(C) Whom the male primarily eligible person has been judicially ordered to support; or

(D) Has been otherwise proved, by evidence satisfactory to the Executive Director, to be the child of the male primarily eligible person

(iv) Adopted child of a primarily eligible person; or

(v) Stepchild who was part of the primarily eligible person's household at the time of death of the individual who is to be interred or inurned.

(2)Minor child. A child of the primarily eligible person who

(i) Is unmarried;

(ii) Has no dependents; and

(iii) Is under the age of twenty-one years, or is under the age of twenty-three years and is taking a full-time course of instruction at an educational institution which the U.S. Department of Education acknowledges as an accredited educational institution.

(3)Permanently dependent child. A child of the primarily eligible person who

(i) Is unmarried;

(ii) Has no dependents; and

(iii) Is permanently and fully dependent on one or both of the child's parents because of a physical or mental disability incurred before attaining the age of twenty-one years or before the age of twenty-three years while taking a full-time course of instruction at an educational institution which the U.S. Department of Education acknowledges as an accredited educational institution.

(4)Unmarried adult child. A child of the primarily eligible person who

(i) Is unmarried;

(ii) Has no dependents; and

(iii) Has attained the age of twenty-one years.

Close relative. The spouse, parents, adult brothers and sisters, adult natural children, adult stepchildren, and adult adopted children of a decedent.

Commemorative monuments. Monuments or other structures or landscape features that serve to honor events in history, units of the Armed Forces, individuals, or groups of individuals that served in the Armed Forces, and that do not contain human remains or mark the location of remains in close proximity. The term does not include memorial markers erected pursuant to § 553.16 .

Derivatively eligible person. Any person who is entitled to interment or inurnment solely based on his or her relationship to a primarily eligible person, as set forth in §§ 553.12(b) and § 553.13(b) respectively.

Disinterment. The permanent removal of interred human remains from a particular gravesite.

Disinurnment. The permanent removal of remains from a particular niche.

Executive Director. The person statutorily charged with exercising authority, direction, and control over all aspects of Army National Military Cemeteries.

Federal capital crime. An offense under Federal law for which a sentence of imprisonment for life or the death penalty may be imposed.

Former prisoner of war. A person who is eligible for or has been awarded the Prisoner of War Medal.

Former spouse. See spouse.

Government. The U.S. government and its agencies and instrumentalities.

Group burial. Interment in one gravesite of one or more service members on active duty killed in the same incident or location where:

(1) The remains cannot be individually identified; or

(2) The person authorized to direct disposition of subsequently identified remains has authorized their interment with the other service members.

Group remains may contain incidental remains of civilians and foreign nationals.

Inactive-duty training.

(1) Duty prescribed for members of the Reserve components by the Secretary concerned under 37 U.S.C. 206 or any other provision of law.

(2) Special additional duties authorized for members of the Reserve components by an authority designated by the Secretary concerned and performed by them on a voluntary basis in connection with the prescribed training or maintenance activities of the units to which they are assigned.

(3) In the case of a member of the Army National Guard or Air National Guard of any State, duty (other than full-time duty) under 32 U.S.C. 316 , 502 , 503 , 504 or 505 or the prior corresponding provisions of law.

(4) This term does not include:

(i) Work or study performed in connection with correspondence courses,

(ii) Attendance at an educational institution in an inactive status, or

(iii) Duty performed as a temporary member of the Coast Guard Reserve.

Interment. The ground burial of casketed or cremated human remains.

Inurnment. The placement of cremated human remains in a niche.

Media. Individuals and agencies that print, broadcast, or gather and transmit news, and their reporters, photographers, and employees.

Memorial marker. A headstone used to memorialize a service member or veteran whose remains are unavailable for reasons listed in § 553.16 .

Memorial service or ceremony. Any activity intended to honor the memory of a person or persons interred, inurned, or memorialized in the Army National Military Cemeteries. This term includes private memorial services, public memorial services, public wreath laying ceremonies, and official ceremonies.

Minor child. See child.

Niche. An aboveground space constructed specifically for the placement of cremated human remains.

Official ceremony. A memorial service or ceremony approved by the Executive Director in which the primary participants are representatives of the Government, a State government, a foreign government, or an international organization authorized by the U.S. Department of State to participate in an official capacity.

Parent. A natural parent, a stepparent, a parent by adoption, or a person who for a period of not less than one year stood in loco parentis, or was granted legal custody by a court decree or statutory provision.

Permanently dependent child. See child.

Person authorized to direct disposition. The person primarily entitled to direct disposition of human remains and who elects to exercise that entitlement. Determination of such entitlement shall be made in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Personal representative. A person who has legal authority to act on behalf of another through applicable law, order, and regulation.

Primarily eligible person. Any person who is entitled to interment or inurnment based on his or her service as specified in § 553.12(a) and § 553.13(a) respectively.

Primary next of kin.

(1) In the absence of a valid written document from the decedent identifying the primary next of kin, the order of precedence for designating a decedent's primary next of kin is as follows:

(i) Spouse, even if a minor;

(ii) Children;

(iii) Parents;

(iv) Siblings, to include half-blood and those acquired through adoption;

(v) Grandparents;

(vi) Other next of kin, in order of relationship to the decedent as determined by the laws of the decedent's state of domicile.

(2) Absent a court order or written document from the deceased, the precedence of next of kin with equal relationships to the decedent is governed by seniority (age), older having higher priority than younger. Equal relationship situations include those involving divorced parents of the decedent, children of the decedent, and siblings of the decedent.

Private headstones or markers. A headstone or individual memorial marker provided at private expense, in lieu of a headstone or individual memorial marker furnished by the Government.

Private memorial service. A memorial service or ceremony conducted at the decedent's gravesite, memorial headstone, or niche.

Public memorial service. A ceremony conducted by members of the public at a historic site in an Army National Military Cemetery.

Public wreath-laying ceremony. A ceremony in which members of the public, assisted by the Tomb Guards, present a wreath or similar memento at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Reserve component. The Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air Force Reserve, the Coast Guard Reserve, the Army National Guard of the United States, and the Air National Guard of the United States.

Spouse, former spouse, subsequently remarried spouse.

(1)Spouse. A person who is legally married to another person.

(2)Former spouse. A person who was legally married to another person at one time but was not legally married to that person at the time of one of their deaths.

(3)Subsequently remarried spouse. A derivatively eligible spouse who was married to the primarily eligible person at the time of the primarily eligible person's death and who subsequently remarried another person.

State capital crime. Under State law, the willful, deliberate, or premeditated unlawful killing of another human being for which a sentence of imprisonment for life or the death penalty may be imposed.

Subsequently recovered remains. Additional remains belonging to the decedent that are recovered or identified after the decedent's interment or inurnment.

Subsequently remarried spouse. See spouse.

Unmarried adult child. See child.

Veteran. A person who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and who was discharged or released under honorable conditions.

32 C.F.R. §553.1

81 FR 65877, 10/26/2016