“Veterans cemetery” covers several different kinds of place, run by different governments under different rules. Knowing which kind you are dealing with tells you whom to call and which rules apply.
VA national cemeteries
National cemeteries are run by the federal government. Most are managed by the VA’s National Cemetery Administration. Eligibility is set by federal law and is the same at every VA national cemetery; see the VA’s eligibility page. Not every national cemetery has space for new burials, so check the cemetery’s current status before making plans.
State, territorial and tribal veterans cemeteries
These are owned and operated by a state, a territory or a tribal government. Many were established or improved with money from the VA’s Veterans Cemetery Grants Program, but a grant does not make them VA cemeteries. The VA notes that they follow eligibility rules similar to those for national cemeteries but may add their own, such as a residency requirement, and that some charge a fee for the burial of a spouse or dependent. Ask the cemetery directly.
The VA’s Find a Cemetery tool lists state and tribal veterans cemeteries alongside national ones. This directory does not yet include them.
Arlington and other Army cemeteries
Arlington National Cemetery is managed by the Department of the Army. Its eligibility rules are separate from those of VA national cemeteries. Arlington states that eligibility for in-ground burial there is the most stringent of all U.S. national cemeteries, though most honorably discharged veterans with active service are eligible for above-ground inurnment; see Arlington’s own eligibility information.
National cemeteries in national parks
A number of historic national cemeteries are managed by the National Park Service, often as part of a battlefield park. Contact the park for visiting information.
Overseas cemeteries
The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains the permanent American military cemeteries and memorials outside the United States. According to the ABMC, its World War I and World War II cemeteries are closed to burials, except when remains of American war dead are newly recovered or when the family of a recently identified unknown chooses burial there. It states that two of its cemeteries, Clark Veterans Cemetery in the Philippines and Corozal American Cemetery in Panama, remain open to burials of qualified veterans.
Soldiers’ lots and private cemeteries
The VA also maintains soldiers’ lots and plots: small government-owned sections inside cemeteries that are otherwise private or municipal. And very many veterans are buried in ordinary private, religious and municipal cemeteries. Those are not veterans cemeteries, though the VA can provide a government headstone or marker for an eligible veteran’s grave there.
How this site labels them
Each cemetery page states who the listing comes from. Where a site is a soldiers’ lot or monument inside someone else’s cemetery, the page says so, and it never describes a state-run cemetery as VA-operated.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. Find a Cemetery.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. Veterans Cemetery Grants Program.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. VA grant-funded cemeteries.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. FAQ: VA Burial and Memorial Benefits (PDF).
- Arlington National Cemetery, U.S. Army. Establishing Eligibility.
- American Battle Monuments Commission. Frequently Asked Questions.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans headstones and markers.