WASHINGTON -- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities throughout the country will observe Memorial Day on May 27 with ceremonies recognizing service members who have given their lives for their country.
"Our future and the blessings of liberty were secured by Americans who sacrificed their lives to defend a cause greater than themselves," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. "We are indebted to them and to all who wore the uniforms of our armed services."
Principi called on Americans to pause at 3 p.m., local time, for a National Moment of Remembrance. That moment of reflection was recognized by an act of Congress to put the "memorial" back in Memorial Day and to honor America’s fallen heroes.
Memorial Day ceremonies open to the public are planned at VA national cemeteries around the country. Some will include national, state and local leaders or veterans group officials along with color guards, decorated veterans, bands and choirs.
Many of VA's 120 national cemeteries will have special activities ranging from historical ceremonies and the display of the Avenue of Flags along main roads to the placement of individual gravesite flags.
Approximately 1,000 Girl and Boy Scouts are expected to decorate 64,000 graves with small flags at the FortRosecransNationalCemetery in San Diego. As part of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Korean War, a war memorial will be dedicated at the Black HillsNationalCemetery in Sturgis, S.D.
The ceremony at FortMcPhersonNationalCemetery in Maxwell, Neb., will mark completion of its last six acres of land, adding 5,500 more gravesites, new buildings and other improvements. For IndiantownGapNationalCemetery in Annville, Pa., this Memorial Day program will be the first one held in an amphitheater provided by donations and dedicated last fall to the state's veterans.
Military flyovers will represent the old and new. At VA's Los AngelesNationalCemetery, World War II vintage planes will do the honors, while at the HoustonNationalCemetery the Texas Air National Guard Spider Wing will fly over the crowd. Also at the Houston cemetery, the Randolph Air Force Base honor guard, the Blue Knights, will hold a prisoners-of-war remembrance ceremony.
This Memorial Day also finds VA beginning an inventory of about 300 military memorials in its cemeteries through a volunteer project.
Every year, more than 8 million people visit VA's national cemeteries -- half of which date to the Civil War -- to pay tribute to some of the nearly 900,000 Americans who have died in military service. To honor its continuing commitment to veterans, VA is planning five new national cemeteries in Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, Pittsburgh and Sacramento, Calif.
Veterans with an "other than dishonorable" discharge, as well as their spouses and dependent children, are entitled to burial in a VA national cemetery. Veterans buried in private cemeteries may have their graves marked with a government headstone or marker. Funeral homes can help survivors arrange for a burial flag, military funeral honors and a Presidential Memorial Certificate recognizing a veteran's service to the country.
In addition, survivors of veterans who were receiving VA disability payments at the time of death may be eligible for one of several types of reimbursements for certain burial expenses.
The tradition of Memorial Day dates to 1868 when it was established as an event in May to clean and ornament the graves of fallen soldiers. It was first called Decoration Day.
Information on VA burial benefits is available from national cemeteries, VA web sites on the Internet at http://www.va.gov or http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices on 800-827-1000.
