VA Wants Vets to Use Their Benefits When Choosing a Final Resting Place

The Department of Veterans Affairs is raising awareness of little-used benefits for veterans: burial at a VA, state or tribal veterans cemetery, and headstones or markers for veterans buried in private cemeteries.

According to VA officials, just 20% of eligible veterans who died last year were buried in a VA-managed or -supported cemetery, a benefit that comes at no cost to the veteran’s family. And fewer than half who qualified for a burial allowance or headstone used the opportunity, according to Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Matt Quinn.

As the VA nears the 50th anniversary of assumin...