In 2019, VA’s National Cemetery Administration (NCA) launched the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM), an innovative, interactive web site with memorial pages for more than 4.5 million Veterans. The path to that moment took just over two years. The impetus for the program was to make the experience of memorializing Veterans available to people everywhere, not just at a physical gravesite. VA’s Center for Innovation provided the $500,000 in seed money to create a prototype of the digital platform. A successful demonstration of the product enabled NCA to secure IT funding from VA to assemble a larger team of specialists to continue development and testing. The development team finished its work just in time for the VLM site to go live by Memorial Day.
VLM utilizes the millions of records contained within NCA’s Burial Operations Support System database. Each Veteran’s memorial page is populated with information about his or her military service and place of burial. At the time of its initial rollout, the site offered little beyond those barebone details but upgrades have expanded its features and made it fully interactive. Beyond just viewing a Veteran’s profile, family members, friends, and other users can post comments and tributes, upload images and historical documents, and submit biographical information about the Veteran’s life, times, and military service. Visitors also have the option of sharing memorial pages by email and posting them to Facebook and Twitter. Another useful feature is the ability to follow a Veteran and be notified when his or her page is updated.
The memorial page of World War II Veteran Ezra E. Hill offers an instructive example of how the VLM platform works. His page provides the basics: his date of birth and death (Dec 19, 1910—Oct 4, 2022), his era of service (World War II), and his military branch and rank (Army, SGT). This is identical to the information found on his headstone. The page also lists the name of the cemetery where he was interred (Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery in Maryland, one of more than 120 VA-grant funded state, tribal, and territory Veteran cemeteries) and the exact location of his gravesite (Section B-20, Site 4, Row 2). But these data points are just the beginning. Recent additions incorporating information from his obituary and another internet source flesh out his life story and enrich the visitor’s appreciation of his legacy. Hill was born in Baltimore, played center field in the Negro Baseball League, and participated in the invasion of Normandy. He owned a shoe store and built it into a successful family business, coached Little League baseball, and had many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Most remarkable of all, he lived to the ripe old age of 111 and, for a few weeks before his passing in the fall of 2022, he was the oldest known surviving Veteran of World War II.
VLM users can view and add more information to Hill’s page or find their own Veterans and contribute to their legacies. Currently, Veterans interred in VA-managed National Cemeteries; VA-funded state, tribal, and territory Veteran cemeteries; and two National Park Service cemeteries are included in VLM. By Memorial Day 2023, Veterans pages will be added from 27 Department of Defense-managed cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery.
Searching for a Veteran is easy, using first and last names and a variety of filters such as service branch, cemetery name, and more. Content can be submitted using various text fields, drop-down choices, and drop & drag options. All content is reviewed by VLM moderators before being posted to Veteran pages to ensure it conforms to the VLM User Policy and appropriately honors Veterans. The Veterans Legacy Memorial invites you to explore the site, pay your respects to the Veterans who served our country, contribute to their legacy if possible, and, in doing so, leave your own mark on one of VA History’s 100 Objects.
By James LaPaglia
APR, Digital Services Officer, National Cemetery Administration
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History of VA in 100 Objects
In the waning days of World War I, French sailors from three visiting allied warships marched through New York in a Liberty Loan Parade. The timing was unfortunate as the second wave of the influenza pandemic was spreading in the U.S. By January, 25 of French sailors died from the virus.
These men were later buried at the Cypress Hills National Cemetery and later a 12-foot granite cross monument, the French Cross, was dedicated in 1920 on Armistice Day. This event later influenced changes to burial laws that opened up availability of allied service members and U.S. citizens who served in foreign armies in the war against Germany and Austrian empires.
History of VA in 100 Objects
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the nation. However, for paraplegic Veterans after World War II it was impossible with the current equipment and wheelchairs at the time. While VA offered these Veterans a healthy dose of physical and occupational therapy as well as vocational training, patients craved something more. They wanted to return to the sports, like basketball, that they had grown up playing. Their wheelchairs, which were incredibly bulky and commonly weighed over 100 pounds limited play.
However, the revolutionary wheelchair design created in the late 1930s solved that problem. Their chairs featured lightweight aircraft tubing, rear wheels that were easy to propel, and front casters for pivoting. Weighing in at around 45 pounds, the sleek wheelchairs were ideal for sports, especially basketball with its smooth and flat playing surface. The mobility of paraplegic Veterans drastically increased as they mastered the use of the chair, and they soon began to roll themselves into VA hospital gyms to shoot baskets and play pickup games.
History of VA in 100 Objects
After World War I, claims for disability from discharged soldiers poured into the offices of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, the federal agency responsible for evaluating them. By mid-1921, the bureau had awarded some amount of compensation to 337,000 Veterans. But another 258,000 had been denied benefits. Some of the men turned away were suffering from tuberculosis or neuropsychiatric disorders. These Veterans were often rebuffed not because bureau officials doubted the validity or seriousness of their ailments, but for a different reason: they could not prove their conditions were service connected.
Due to the delayed nature of the diseases, which could appear after service was completed, Massachusetts Senator David Walsh and VSOs pursued legislation to assist Veterans with their claims. Eventually this led to the first presumptive conditions for Veteran benefits.
