GENERAL INFORMATION

Military Funeral Honors
After the last interment of the day, when the flag is raised to full staff, TAPS is rendered on the AMVETS carillon system to honor all veterans interred that day. Each committal shelter has a permanently installed digitized recording of TAPS that is played at each veteran's funeral when requested.

The cemetery staff can provide families and funeral directors with names and telephone numbers of clergy, bagpipers and buglers in the area.

Contact numbers for military honors for the Massachusetts area are:
U.S. Army - (888) 325-1601
U.S. Navy - (860) 694-3475
U.S. Marine Corps - (516) 228-5666
U.S. Air Force - (781) 377-4850
U.S. Coast Guard - (617) 223-3476
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HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Massachusetts National Cemetery is located in Barnstable County on Cape Cod, approximately 65 miles southeast of Boston and adjacent to the Otis Air Force Base.

On June 18, 1973, Congress passed the National Cemetery Act which transferred 82 of the Army’s national cemeteries to the Veteran’s Administration (VA). The following year, the VA’s National Cemetery System adopted the regional cemetery concept plan in which one large national cemetery would be built within each of the 10 standard federal regions, as established by the General Services Administration. A policy was also established that new cemeteries would only be created on land already owned by the federal government.

Twenty five years had passed since the government last acquired land for construction of a new national cemetery and that was in 1949 for the Willamette National Cemetery, in Oregon. No new national cemetery had been built in the New England region in nearly forty years, since 1936, when the Long Island National Cemetery opened.

During the mid-1970s, when the National Cemetery System was looking to expand, it determined that the largest veteran population in the northeast was centered in the Boston area. A search soon commenced to find a suitable site for a national cemetery, nearby. The difficult task of locating land which would be available to the government at no cost eventually led to the identification of a 749-acre tract on the 22,000-acre Otis Air Force Base as the most likely site. The base occupied land that was leased to the Department of Defense (DOD). A portion of this lease was terminated and the title for 749.29 acres was transferred to the VA’s National Cemetery System in 1976. The Otis tract became the first parcel of land acquired by the National Cemetery System for the specific purpose of building a new national cemetery since 1949.

The Massachusetts National Cemetery was dedicated on October 11, 1980 and became the third new national cemetery to open in nearly 30 years. Calverton, New York, and Riverside, California, were the first and second, respectively. The site was officially named the Veterans Administration National Cemetery of Bourne, Mass., but over time the lengthy appellation changed in practice, if not in fact, to simply, Massachusetts National Cemetery.

Monuments and Memorials
Massachusetts National Cemetery has a memorial trail where, as of February 2005, 47 memorials and a carillon have been erected in memory of veterans from World War I to the modern era.
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NOTABLE PERSONS

Medal of Honor Recipients
Hospital Corpsman Richard David DeWert, (Korea), U.S. Navy. In Korea April 5, 1951 (Section 5 Grave 176). Originally buried in Korea, DeWert was re-interred at the Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, N.Y., on Oct. 15, 1951. Subsequently, his family wished to have him interred in his native state. DeWert was disinterred from the Woodlawn National Cemetery on Oct. 13, 1987, and reinterred in the Massachusetts National Cemetery on Oct. 14, 1987.

Others
Unknown United States Soldier. Interred on Aug. 4, 1990, in Section 5 Grave 107. The remains were unearthed during highway excavation in South Carolina in the 1980s. He was identified as a member of the "Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry" by the buttons from his uniform.
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FLORAL/GROUNDS REGULATIONS

Cemetery policies are conspicuously posted and readily visible to the public.

Floral arrangements accompanying the casket or urn at the time of burial will be placed on the completed grave. Natural cut flowers may be placed on graves at any time of the year. They will be removed when they become unsightly or when it becomes necessary to facilitate cemetery operations such as mowing. Water will be available at outside faucets from April 15 to Oct. 10.

Containers such as pots, baskets, etc. are not authorized. Privately owned, permanent in-ground flower containers are not allowed.

Artificial flowers will be permitted on graves from Oct. 10 through April 15 and may be removed when their presence interferes with grounds maintenance. Potted plants will be allowed on graves for a period extending 10 days before through 10 days after Easter Sunday.

Christmas wreaths, grave pillows (3x2) and other seasonal adornments may be placed on graves from Dec. 1 through Jan. 20. They may not be secured to headstones or markers.

Flags and flag holders are not permitted on graves at any time. The Avenue of Flags, which consists of donated casket flags, is displayed on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and other special occasions in lieu of individual grave flags.

Permanent plantings, statues, vigil lights, wind chimes, breakable objects and similar items are not permitted on cemetery grounds. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not permit adornments that are considered offensive, inconsistent with the dignity of the cemetery or considered hazardous to cemetery personnel. For example, items incorporating beads or wires may become entangled in mowers or other equipment and cause injury.

Unauthorized items removed from graves and surrounding areas will be disposed of in a proper manner.
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