Veterans remembered by teenager challenge coin tribute

Respect to veterans: Teen creates a coin for every grave site
Palm Beach Post
By Kevin D. Thompson
Staff Writer
September 7, 2018

LAKE WORTH
Four years ago, Joshua Katz, a 12-year-old devoted Boy Scout, was at a Memorial Day ceremony at the South Florida National Cemetery in suburban Lake Worth passing out water to those thirsty from the heat. A penny on a headstone caught Katz’s eye.

Joshua Katz, 16, at the South Florida National Cemetery Memorial Garden and Benches in Lake Worth. (Greg Lovett / The Palm Beach Post)

“I took a picture of it and looked it up because I didn’t know what it meant,” said Katz, now 16.

He learned it was meant as a message to the deceased soldier’s family that someone else has visited the grave to pay respects.

He learned more: A nickel meant another solider stopped by to visit. A dime meant a soldier served with the deceased soldier and a quarter meant that somebody was there when the soldier died.

While Katz understood the practice of leaving coins, he wanted to do more.

“I spent my whole summer to come up with a way to make sure there was some kind of symbol of recognition on their headstones and that all the names were read aloud,” said the suburban Lake Worth resident.

That will happen Saturday, Sept. 8 at the event Katz helped create, the 5th Annual POW-MIA-OREE (Prisoner of War, Missing in Action, Outdoor Remembrance Educational Event) at the cemetery. The 90-minute event starts at 8:30 a.m.

The event is to show respect for veterans and their families by having the names of every veteran interred at the cemetery read aloud. Also, a custom challenge coin will be placed on each headstone and marker for loved ones, to have as a keepsake to know their loved one has not been forgotten.
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Georgia Veterans' Cemetery Turned Into Movie Set?

Families outraged after veteran cemetery turns into movie set 
WSB News
April 17, 2015

The widow of a Korean War veteran said to see the cemetery turned into a movie set was heartbreaking. “This isn't Las Vegas, or California. This is a veterans’ cemetery. It's sacred to us,” Shirley Bryan said.

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — Families outraged after veteran cemetery turns into movie set. A group of veterans and their families contacted Channel 2 Action News to express their disapproval of a decision to allow a production company to shoot a movie scene at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton. read more here

Thieves steal from veterans graves, Deputy Sheriffs donate time

Thieves Steal From Hundreds of Veteran's Graves
WBNS News 10
By Josh Poland
August 15, 2014

The sheriff's office says the thieves worked their way across Perry County in June and July. They are accused of stealing from at least 15 cemeteries and taking a total of 362 brass rods.

"It's probably one of the most shameful crimes I've investigated as a deputy," said Deputy Adam Newlon.

Newlon says he began investigating the crimes in June with Deputy Brandon Forester.

He says the two put in more than 100 hours of their own free time investigating the case because it meant so much to them.

NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio - Special veteran memorials at the Crooksville Cemetery tell stories.

They are stories of those who defended our freedom, stories of those who gave everything for it.

Some of those memorials have a new story to tell. It's one that fellow veterans wish they didn't have to tell.

"There's no if's, and's or but's, it's wrong," said Tom Workman as he described thieves stealing the brass rods from veteran memorials across Perry County.

"The people that served deserve the respect," he said. "The people that are stealing don't deserve any respect."

Workman is a Vietnam veteran and the commander of the VFW Perry County Post 2806.

When 10TV spoke with him Friday evening, he was getting ready to bury a fellow Vietnam veteran and VFW member over the weekend.
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Groups seeking to honor veterans' graves fight additional burden

Changes sought for Ohio, Ky. unmarked vets' graves
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 19, 2013

CINCINNATI -- Federal policy is preventing some veterans with unmarked graves from getting headstones and tombstones to mark their final resting places, and some supporters of historic cemeteries want that changed.

Supporters in Ohio and Kentucky are among those who want to change a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs policy they say is too restrictive, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The federal regulation defines "applicant" as the veteran's next of kin, a person authorized in writing by the next of kin or a representative authorized in writing by the veteran. But members of historical groups and those working to preserve Civil War-era cemeteries say the policy wasn't consistently enforced until last year. Some seeking to get markers for veterans' unmarked graves say they've been turned down because they weren't direct descendants, the newspaper said.

A national campaign to change the policy has launched an online petition asking that the VA make the regulation inapplicable to veterans who served more than 62 years ago. The petition collected 1,950 signatures as of Thursday, the newspaper reported.

"This is having an impact all across America," said Jeff Richman, leader of a committee behind the petition. Richman is the historian for Green-Wood Cemetery in a Brooklyn, N.Y. It contains graves of 3,300 Civil War veterans.

Richman said the policy creates an impossible and unnecessary burden for groups seeking to honor veterans who served generations ago.
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Vietnam Veterans digging their own graves, for real

I am beginning to think my forehead has so many wrinkles because of Vietnam Veterans. They amaze me all the time. For a generation of veterans so mistreated when they came home, they managed to do more for other veterans than any other group. Now, after all they've done, New Jersey Vietnam Veterans are taking on starting their own cemetery.

New Jersey veterans band together to bury their own
By Jana Winter
Published November 28, 2012
FoxNews.com

A group of veterans from New Jersey are building the state’s first nonprofit cemetery -- a graveyard exclusively for men and women who have served their country.

The veterans have secured a 66-acre parcel in the state's northwestern Sussex County, and hope to break ground by Memorial Day. But they’re in dire need of funding and corporate sponsorship to complete the Northern New Jersey Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

“There’s a real need for a veterans cemetery in this part of New Jersey," said Vietnam veteran John Harrigan, 65, who has made the cemetery his crusade since 2008. “There’s close to 100,000 vets up here."

The closest veterans cemetery to Sussex County is the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Cemetery in Gloucester County, a more than two-hour drive that widows tell Harrigan they are unable to make.

Harrigan, president of the Sussex County chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, said the group has been working for more than four years to secure funds and overcome legal hurdles to make their dream happen. Their website www.VVA1002.org has detailed plans, architectural renderings and information on how to donate to the project.
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Charges sought in Wisconsin veterans cemetery trash dump

Charges sought in veterans cemetery trash dump
By Scott Bauer
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 27, 2012

MADISON, Wis. — The state Department of Justice has been asked to bring charges against a former maintenance supervisor at a veterans cemetery for allegedly using the grounds as his private dump, burying everything from lawnmower blades to refrigerators.

The Department of Natural Resources on Thursday referred the case to the DOJ for alleged violations at the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery outside of Union Grove. The cemetery has been designed as a national shrine.

The Associated Press is not naming the former worker because he has not been formally charged. The worker resigned in November, three months after loads of garbage were removed from the cemetery.
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Burial problems found at VA cemeteries

Burial problems found at VA cemeteries

By Christian Davenport, Published: January 23

The Department of Veterans Affairs has found scores of misplaced headstones and at least eight cases of people buried in the wrong places at several military cemeteries across the country.

The review by the VA’s National Cemetery Administration follows the revelation of widespread burial problems at Arlington National Cemetery, which touched off congressional inquiries and a criminal investigation.

In addition to the cemeteries in Texas, he said, problems have been discovered at national burial grounds in Ohio, New Mexico, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The cemetery administration is waiting on reports from Golden Gate and San Francisco National Cemeteries.
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Unmarked graves found at veteran cemetery in Miss

Unmarked graves found at veteran cemetery in Miss.
(AP)
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — Authorities said Thursday they fear dozens of veterans could lie in unmarked graves at a Mississippi military cemetery after they found two unidentified coffins and used radar to detect other possible plots.
The two coffins and other potential graves were found in sections of Vicksburg National Military Cemetery that were opened in the 1940s for World War I, World War II and Korean War veterans, National Park Service officials said at a news conference. The sprawling cemetery is the final resting place for more than 18,000 veterans, mostly Union soldiers from the Civil War.
The problems were discovered after workers preparing a burial site for a World War II veteran found a coffin in August. Another coffin was found nearby. The veteran was buried elsewhere in the cemetery and the graves were left alone, authorities said.
The cemetery stopped offering burials in 1961, except for veterans who had prior arrangements. There have been 109 burials since then.
The park service asked for help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which used ground-penetrating radar devices to search for graves. Those sites were then checked by pushing metal rods into the ground, which in several cases hit solid objects that could be coffins.
The National Park Service's Southeast Archaeological Center has also been helping. Officials said a preliminary analysis of their research identified "eight probable and 48 possible unmarked graves."
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Unmarked graves found at veteran cemetery in Miss

New veterans cemetery a 'national shrine'

New veterans cemetery a 'national shrine'
Burial site for region's veterans to be dedicated after six-year campaign
By Kim Hackett
Published Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
Last updated Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 7:14 a.m.

SARASOTA COUNTY — Sarasota County is poised to become a resting ground for thousands of military veterans after Sunday's groundbreaking and dedication of the 295-acre Sarasota VA National Cemetery.

The ceremony at the new site on State Road 72, east of Interstate 75, is expected to draw 1,000 people, including local politicians such as U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan and former U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris. The Navy Band from Jacksonville will play and the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office will have a helicopter flyover.

"It's the culmination of a dream," said , president of the Sarasota County Veterans Commission, who started the campaign for the cemetery six years ago and got Harris to push it through Congress. "We need it now to properly recognize and bury Korean and World War veterans who are a vast aging group."

The Sarasota County cemetery will be Florida's sixth national cemetery. Its addition is part of the nation's biggest expansion of cemeteries for veterans since the Civil War.

More than 400,000 veterans live within 75 miles of Sarasota. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has estimated the cemetery will accommodate more than 10 burials a day, and up to 50 a day, once it opens.
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http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080531/NEWS/805310313/1661