NCA doubles number of Veteran pages in VLM

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This November for Veterans Month, the National Cemetery Administration is embarking on the largest expansion of the number of Veterans’ pages for its award-winning website, the Veterans Legacy Memorial, since its inception in May 2019. By adding nearly 5 million pages of Veterans interred in private and other non-VA cemeteries who received a NCA-provided headstone, marker or medallion, VLM will host nearly 10 million total Veteran pages.

First launched in 2019, VLM is an interactive online platform comprised of more than 4.85 million individual Veteran profile pages. These pages display military information (service branch, rank, war period, decorations) and resting place details (cemetery name, clickable map, gravesite, interment date), and it allows family members, friends and others to upload a variety of content. People can submit tributes, biographies, photos and documents; create a word cloud that describes a Veteran, and develop a timeline of military and personal achievements. To date, more than 73,000 pieces of content live forever on Veteran pages.

Veterans laid to rest since the VA marker ordering database was created in 1996 are part of the expansion that includes:

• More than 80,000 additional pages from interments in state, tribal and territory Veteran cemeteries
• More than 4,000 pages from interments in 86 foreign countries
• More than 1,000 additional pages from interments in National Park Service-managed cemeteries.

The NCA marker-ordering system automatically generates a VLM page when a Veteran’s eligibility has been confirmed and the order placed by NCA staff.

New VLM pages include:

• Charity Adams Earley, commander of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion from WWII, recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022, interred at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum in Dayton, Ohio.  https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/CHARITYADAMSEARLEY/53251D 
• Marie Edmee LeRoux Sebastien, member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Telephone Operators “Hello Girls” from WWI, interred at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Maryland. Until recently, she was buried in an unmarked grave. https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/MEDMEELEROUXSEBASTIEN/559F47
• Arthur Raymond Lewis, U.S. Merchant Marine from WWII, is interred at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. Lewis died at sea aboard the S.S. Steel Vendor in the Gulf of Tadjoura. https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/ARTHURRAYMONDLEWIS/5000D6
• David Crockett served as a first lieutenant in Headquarters Company, 355^th Labor Battalion, Quartermaster Corps, United States Army. Crockett is interred at Gettysburg National Military Park.   https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/DAVIDHCROCKETT/4B974D

Visit www.va.gov/remember, find your Veteran or choose another who has been laid to rest at a cemetery near you, and provide them a lasting memory to help keep their legacy alive.

For information about VA burial benefits, visit one of VA’s National Cemetery Locations in-person, visit online at VA burial benefits and memorial items, or call toll free at 800-827-1000. To plan ahead for you and your family, visit NCA’s pre-need eligibility website.

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