Honoring your Veteran's grave this holiday season

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit the graves of their loved-ones interred at VA National Cemeteries. These special trips often occur around the holidays, but due to COVID-19 safety concerns many are unable to make the trip this year.

But just because you can’t be there in person doesn’t mean your Veteran is forgotten.

“In the military we often say ‘No one is left behind,’ and at the National Cemetery Administration we have a saying that ‘No Veteran ever dies’ as long as we honor their legacy,” said Danny Devine, executive director of the National Cemetery Administration’s Office of Engagement and Memorial Innovations.

There are still ways to honor your Veteran despite not being able to travel.

Find someone local to visit your loved one’s grave. Post in or search the comments below to find Veteran supporters who are local and can visit your Veteran without major travel.

• If you are looking for someone to visit your Veteran type LOOKING and the cemetery such as - LOOKING Florida National Cemetery.
- Consider sharing some details about your Veteran with a volunteer visitor so they can honor his or her service.

• If you are offering to visit a grave type VISITING and the cemetery such as – VISITING Florida National Cemetery.
- Consider taking a picture and sending it to the Veteran family member or loved one who requested the visit.

Not sure where your Veteran is buried or interred? Use NCA’s Nationwide Gravesite Locator at: https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/

If you can’t visit or can’t find someone to visit your Veteran this year, consider using the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) online platform. VLM extends memorialization of the 3.7 million Veterans interred in those cemeteries to this digital memorial space by providing a VLM profile page for each Veteran. Launched in 2019 with Veteran service and cemetery information, VLM now allows family, friends and others to post tributes to a Veteran’s page and to share Veteran pages using email, Facebook and Twitter. Visit http://www.va.gov/remember to get started.

VA operates 152 national cemeteries and 34 soldiers' lots and monument sites in 42 states and Puerto Rico. More than 4 million Americans, including Veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA's national cemeteries. VA also provides funding to establish, expand, improve and maintain 117 Veterans cemeteries in 48 states and territories including tribal trust lands, Guam, and Saipan. For Veterans not buried in a VA national cemetery, VA provides headstones, markers or medallions to commemorate their service. In 2017, VA honored more than 361,892 Veterans and their loved ones with memorial benefits in national, state, tribal and private cemeteries. Learn more at: https://www.cem.va.gov/