Family fights for loved one’s Arlington National Cemetery burial [Video]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The family of decorated Air Force Colonel Tara Lunardi thought the last thing they would be dealing with after she lost her battle with cancer would be bureaucratic red tape. But in the process of trying to lay their loved one to rest, that’s all they’ve encountered, leaving the family deeply grieving. 

“It’s when you realize that you’re permanently by yourself — she’s not coming back from a trip,” Tara Lunardi’s husband of nearly a decade, Mark Lunardi, said of how he has been processing the loss of his wife. 

Mark Lunardi admits, he’s still adjusting to his new normal at his home in Dumfries, Virginia. Grief is something he is coping with every day. 

“Everybody has that person; I don’t have mine anymore,” he said.

In February of 2024, after a brave battle with colorectal cancer, Tara Lunardi passed …