It was a routine request, and the Army responded routinely. The widow of Robert G. Thompson, a World War II staff sergeant who died last October, applied for permission to bury her husband's ashes in Arlington National Cemetery. As it happened, Hero Thompson, a Distinguished Service Cross holder, was also ex-Convict Thompson, one of eleven U.S. Communist Party leaders who were convicted in 1949 of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. Government. Nonetheless, the Army approved the widow's request.
Last week the Pentagon had second thoughts. Under a year-old Army regulation, ex-servicemen who have been sent to prison...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
