by Monday, May 25th, marks the 160th year that Memorial Day has been commemorated. What started in Waterloo, New York as a community-wide event to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers, it became known as Decoration Day a couple of years later. It wasn’t until 1887 that it became known alternatively as Memorial Day. That was when Congress passed a law making it a holiday for government workers.
Given that it started as a way to commemorate the fallen by decorating their graves with flowers and flags this led me to think about U.S. veterans cemeteries. They are located both in the United States and abroad. Their administration ranges from the American Battle Monuments Commission to the VA’s National Cemetery Administration to a number of state-level agencies.
The American Battle Monuments Commission manages 26 permanent American military cemeteries overseas. They also manage 31 memorials, monuments, and markers dedicated to the fallen. The first cemetery was established in 1851 in Mexico City, Mexico for soldiers killed in the Mexican-American War.
Currently in 17 countries, there are over 124,000 veterans buried in these cemeteries. The greatest number of deceased veterans were from World War II (92,958) followed by World War I (30,973).
In terms of national cemeteries, they are located in 44 states and Puerto Rico. The states without national cemeteries are Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. However, all of these states have at least one state-run veterans cemetery. The National Cemetery Administration currently manages 157 national cemeteries with new national cemeteries under development in Nevada and Utah.
Arlington National Cemetery is the largest national cemetery in the number of veterans with over 400,000 veterans (and often spouses) buried there. By size, the Riverside National Cemetery in California is the largest at over 1,200 acres.
Arlington is one of only two national cemeteries actually administered by the Department of the Army. The other is Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery located in the District of Columbia. The US Army also administers a number of military post cemeteries including at West Point.
Finally, you have state, tribal, and territory administered veterans cemeteries. These are funded through grants by the VA’s National Cemetery Administration. There are 124 of these cemeteries in 47 states, 14 tribal nations, and three territories. For example, my state of North Carolina has four state veterans cemeteries located in Jacksonville, Goldsboro, Spring Lake, and Goldsboro. There are four national cemeteries in the state which date from the Civil War and are closed to new burials.
Regardless of the administrator of the cemetery, they all contain the remains of those that served this country. Some may have died in combat while others died long after the war or wars in which they served. Nonetheless, they all served and should be remembered on this Memorial Day as something more than just an excuse for a sale.