After John F. Kennedy was assassinated , his wife , Jackie Kennedy , was very specific about the type of commemoration she wanted him to have . She had previously admired the perpetual flame at the tomb of the French Unknown Soldier in Paris , and feel that a similar tribute would be appropriate for her husband . The idea was okay , and the Washington Gas Company hadabout a dayto designing a propane torch that could be used at the funeral . They pulled it off , and the flame has been burning ever since .
Well , sort of . Despite the fact that it ’s designed to reignite itself , the flame has , on at least two juncture , gone out .
First , there was the holy water incident . On December 10 , 1963 , a radical of Catholic schoolchildren were visiting Kennedy ’s memorial at Arlington National Cemetery . The gravesite was impermanent , a space for the public to sorrow while the lasting monument was being build . Even so , the eternal flame was already in spot , light up byJackie Kennedy on the day of the funeral . The children grapple to extinguish the flame less than a month afterwards , while blessing it with holy water . Luckily , one of the grave precaution come about to be a smoker , and he used hiscigarette lighterto reignite the memorial
Kennedy was moved to his final resting place , not far from the temporary spot , on March 14 , 1967 . Later that year , inclement weather make the flame to go out for a second sentence . The flame is establish to defy rainwater and wind — there is what the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum refers to as a “ forever flashing galvanising sparknear the lead of the nozzle . " Because of this , if the fire is extinguished , it ’s reignited almost instantly . But that August , heavy rain not only extinguished the flaming , but also flooded a nearby transformer . The faulty transformerpreventedthe flicker igniter from firing , so the flame remain out until official could light up it again when the rain stopped .
In 2013 , the flame go through some significantrenovationsto make the gasolene arrangement more free energy effective and easier to keep . to do that , the fire at the real land site had to be extinguished . But before they did that , they reassign the fire to a impermanent burner located just behind the original . By preserving that original fire , they can say it did n’t actually go out .
Two extinguished flames in a footling more than 50 year may stand for that the fire isn’ttechnicallyeternal , but it ’s still a pretty good track record .
