Latest news with #RonaldWalters
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
VA to Expand Online Memorial Website to Include Veterans Buried Overseas
The Department of Veterans Affairs has added more than 210,000 veterans to its online memorial project for U.S. veterans, including pages for Americans buried in cemeteries overseas. Ahead of Memorial Day, the VA announced it has expanded its Veterans Legacy Memorial website to include those interred at locations overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the federal agency that manages U.S. military burial sites in Europe, the United Kingdom, Africa, Asia and elsewhere. "The brave Americans resting in American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries and whose names are inscribed on ABMC memorials around the world sacrificed their lives to liberate allied countries and to protect our nation's interests," Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters said in a statement last week. "It's our honor to preserve their legacies." Read Next: Pentagon Will Use Health Screenings, Commanders to Ferret Out Trans Troops for Separations The VA launched the Veterans Legacy Memorial website in 2019 to highlight former service members buried at national cemeteries, giving loved ones the chance to tell their veterans' stories by adding service records, remembrances, photos, historical documents and more to their personal pages. The program later was expanded to include VA grant-funded cemeteries, those managed by the Department of Defense, U.S. Park Service cemeteries and private cemeteries where veterans have received a VA-provided grave marker since 1996. The project now includes more than 10 million pages, with more than 200,000 submissions made to veterans pages, according to the VA. Earlier this year, the VA announced that it will allow veterans to build their own VLM pages, uploading images, autobiographies, military achievements and life milestones -- anything they would want someone to know about them -- before they die. To use this VLM feature, known as "Your Life, Your Story," veterans must be eligible for burial in a national cemetery and have received pre-approval by the VA. They then will be able to log into a secure area of the site to create their pages; the content will go live once the veteran passes away and the VA approves their family's request for burial or other memorial benefit. VA officials have said the next goal for the VLM is to add the names of veterans who received VA-issued grave markers before 1996. The ABMC has managed overseas veteran graves since 1934, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order mandating that the agency oversee eight military cemeteries in Europe. It currently administers 26 American cemeteries overseas, caring for more than 124,000 graves and memorials dedicated to roughly 94,000 who are missing in action, lost or buried at sea. "We are proud to be a part of this partnership, which adds new resources to honor our nation's veterans from all wars and brings their stories to those who aren't able to visit our ABMC sites overseas," ABMC Acting Secretary Robert Dalessandro said in a news release last week. Related: This Memorial Day, VA Adds More than 300,000 Veterans to its Legacy Memorial Project Site
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Veterans Administration partners with nonprofits to honor fallen soldiers on Memorial Day
May 1 (UPI) -- The Veterans Administration will partner with a trio of nonprofits to honor veterans interred in the VA's national cemeteries, the administration announced Thursday. The VA said that, through the partnership with Carry The Load, the Travis Manion Foundation and Victory for Veterans, there will be at least 70,000 volunteers visiting 54 national veterans cemeteries on Memorial Day. "These collaborations allow us to express our collective appreciation for Veterans' service and sacrifice," said Ronald Walters, Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs. "Through shared efforts, we honor their legacy and ensure their stories are never forgotten." More than 5.4 million people are buried in VA national cemeteries, including more than 4 million ranging from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They include fallen soldiers and eligible family members. The VA encouraged people to visit the Veterans Legacy Memorial to share memories and stories about service members. VA officials said that, beginning May 1, Carry The Load Memorial May activities would see volunteers visiting 17 VA national cemeteries, traveling thousands of miles along three routes. This year's Travis Manion Foundation's "Honor Project" will be the largest in its history, with 2,500 volunteers visiting more than 50 cemeteries in more than 25 states throughout Memorial Day weekend, VA officials said. Meanwhile, volunteers with Victory for Veterans will recognize veterans by placing flowers on veterans' graves, VA officials said, adding that since 2021 the program has expanded to placing flowers at 10 VA national cemeteries.
