VA overhauls management of national cemeteries

The rising number of deaths among World War II veterans is prompting the Department of Veterans Affairs to change the management structure of its 119 national cemeteries. VA will open two new field offices in Oakland, Calif., and Indianapolis on Oct. 1. "Reducing the number of cemeteries that managers oversee and increasing the direct contact they have with cemeteries under their supervision will enable VA to better meet its quality service standards and its commitment to maintain all VA cemeteries as national shrines," said Hershel Gober, acting VA Secretary. The national cemetery system was created in 1862, when President Lincoln signed legislation authorizing its establishment ". . . for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country." Fourteen cemeteries were created that year. When the Civil War ended, search and recovery teams visited battlefields, churchyards, plantations and other sites where hasty wartime interments had been made. This resulted in the remains of nearly 300,000 Civil War dead being reinterred in 73 national cemeteries by 1870. Burial in a National Cemetery is open to veterans who meet minimum active service duty requirements and who were not dishonorably discharged. Veterans who served after Sept. 7, 1980, must have served a minimum of 24 months unless separated due to early overseas return, convenience of the government, or disability. In 1977, VA created a nationwide structure to oversee the cemetery network, with field offices in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Denver. VA's National Cemetery Administration employs 1,400 people, most of whom work in the cemeteries, and had a budget of $97 million in 2000. VA now oversees 2.3 million grave sites on more than 13,500 acres. According to Gober, the two new offices in Oakland and Indianapolis will increase the quality of maintenance of the cemeteries. "With our World War II veterans passing away and burials steadily increasing, we need an organization that can move ahead with the best possible management to meet the challenge," Gober said. "We have to use our staff and other resources to make VA national cemeteries the finest tributes possible to America's heroes." VA plans to create new cemeteries in Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma City, according to Jo Schuda, an agency spokesperson. There is land available at most of the larger VA cemeteries to handle burials for at least the next 100 years, Schuda said.