Department of Veteran Affairs change rules for CW vets tombstones

CSA Today

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Location
Laurinburg NC
Department of Veterans Affairs blocks historic Green-Wood cemetery from giving Civil War vets tombstones. But some of these War
Between the States fighters have been dead for 150 years. Rule change allows only vets' relatives to get a stone.

More than a thousand Civil War veterans are condemned to eternity in an unmarked Brooklyn grave due to bizarre federal rules — but now New York’s top senator and cemetery advocates are fighting for change.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked Green-Wood Cemetery from placing gravestones on the empty plots, which are currently marked by yellow flags, ruling that only soldiers’ relatives could request a tombstone.
As a result, 1,200 vets of the War Between the States remain in unmarked plots.

"We have to reverse this injustice," said Green-Wood historian Jeff Richman, who has an petition on marktheirgraves.org demanding the feds return to the old rules.

Sen. Chuck Schumer has joined the campaign, reaching out to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Tuesday asking the agency to back down.

"All veterans deserve to have their final resting spot marked and honored with a headstone," Schumer said.

Richman estimated there are around 8,000 former Civil War soldiers buried among the roughly 560,000 bodies resting beneath the grass at the city’s largest boneyard.

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It doesn't appear that anything has changed since that article came out in July. The following is from Cleveland.com in mid-September and I can't imagine anything has happened since (government shutdown, etc.). Maybe if we're all quiet about it the subject will go away.:banghead:


VA policy on unmarked veterans' graves frustrates headstone efforts

CLEVELAND, Ohio - If Ira Cook had died today, chances are there’d be no problem getting a headstone for him from the Memorial Affairs Division of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides that service for all U.S. veterans.

But Cook, a black Union Army soldier who served during the Civil War in the regiment depicted in the movie “Glory,” died in Cleveland in 1874 at age 42.

No headstone marks his grave at Woodland Cemetery in Cleveland. Just an empty patch of grass.

And unless Cook’s next-of-kin can be found -- or a person authorized (in writing) by Cook or a family member to apply for a VA headstone -- he won’t be getting that grave marker.

Until last year the VA provided headstones for unmarked veterans’ graves based on documentation provided by historians, genealogists or anyone who could authenticate a veteran’s identity and service.

A change to that policy, solely limiting headstone requests to a veteran’s next-of-kin or authorized family representatives, has prompted a campaign (www.marktheirgraves.org) to have the restriction repealed.

 
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