WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs, in collaboration with the Office of Army Cemeteries, announced last week that it has added 300,000 service members and Veterans interred in 27 Department of Defense-managed military cemeteries into the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) website.
The Veterans Legacy Memorial is the nation’s first digital platform dedicated to the memory of Veterans interred in VA’s national cemeteries, VA-grant funded cemeteries, two National Park Service national cemeteries, and now, 27 Defense-managed military cemeteries. Each of these 300,000 Veterans will now have individual pages on VLM where family, friends, and others can post tributes, upload images, and share their Veteran’s achievements, biographical information, and historical documents.
These 300,000 additional Veterans and service members will join more than 4.5 million already memorialized on the VLM site at VA.gov/Remember. By far, the largest number of these additional Veterans and service members are interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
“The Veterans Legacy Memorial gives all of us a way to remember Veterans and thank them for their service and contributions to our nation, even when we can’t visit their gravesite,” said Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Matt Quinn. “Expanding VLM to include Veterans and service members in DoD-managed cemeteries is just the next step in achieving our goal of giving every Veteran a digital memorial space. As we approach Memorial Day, we encourage anyone to visit VA.gov/Remember to help commemorate the heroes who served and sacrificed for our nation.”
“We are honored to be part of this meaningful program that pays tribute to our nation’s heroes in such a personal way,” said Executive Director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and Army National Military Cemeteries Karen Durham-Aguilera. “We look forward to this continued partnership so that more people can discover the extraordinary stories of service and sacrifice that make up the fabric of our country.”
Of the 27 cemeteries, five are operated by the Navy, four by the Air Force, and 18 by the Army – including two national cemeteries: Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery.
The 27 cemeteries include:
- Army: Arlington National Cemetery; Aberdeen Proving Ground Post Cemetery; Fort Moore Main Post Cemetery; Fort Bragg Main Post Cemetery; Carlisle Barracks Main Post Cemetery; Edgewood Arsenal Post Cemetery; Fort Huachuca Post Cemetery; Fort Knox Post Cemetery; Fort Leonard Wood Post Cemetery; Fort Sill Post Cemetery; U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery; Camp Lewis Post Cemetery; Fort Meade Post Cemetery; Presidio of Monterey Main Post Cemetery; Fort Riley Post Cemetery; Schofield Barracks Main Post Cemetery; U.S. Military Academy West Point Cemetery; and Watervliet Arsenal Post Cemetery.
- Navy: Naval Station Great Lakes Cemetery; Naval Station Cuzco Beach Cemetery; U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium; Maine Memorial at Naval Air Station Key West; and CAPT Ted Conaway Memorial at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.
- Air Force: Fort George Wright Cemetery; U.S. Air Force Academy Cemetery; Francis E. Warren Air Force Base Cemetery; and Offutt Air Force Base Cemetery.
More than 55,000 submissions have been made to Veterans’ VLM profile pages since the site launched in 2019. All content submitted to VLM is reviewed by NCA moderators before being posted to a Veteran’s page in order to ensure that it conforms to the VLM User Policy.
This month, VA will host Memorial Day ceremonies at more than 130 national cemeteries to commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. VA’s National Cemetery Administration invites Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors — as well as members of the public — to attend these solemn wreath-laying ceremonies, which will take place throughout Memorial Day weekend. A complete list of Memorial Day events can be found here.
For more information contact NCA Digital Services Officer at James.LaPaglia@va.gov.a