In 2019, NCA launched the Veterans Legacy Memorial, our nation’s first digital platform dedicated entirely to more than 3.7 million Veterans interred in VA’s national cemeteries, each with a memorial page dedicated to preserving their legacy. The pages display each Veteran’s military service data and cemetery resting place information.
Last year, NCA added the ability for family members and other VLM users to submit text tributes to Veteran pages, and today more than 15,000 tributes have been posted.
For this Memorial Day weekend, as many of us again gather more virtually than physically to honor our Veterans due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, NCA has developed more interactive features for VLM, including the ability for users to upload images and documents, and share military service timeline and achievements, biographical information and more. Additionally, VLM users will also be able to “Follow a Veteran” to receive email alerts when new content is added to that Veteran’s page.
We know there is much more to preserve your Veteran’s legacy than the publicly available information gathered from VA records. Over this Memorial Day weekend and beyond, we invite you to use the Veterans Legacy Memorial to find your Veteran and share your memories.
Maybe you have scrapbooks with old newspaper clippings, award citations and photos? Perhaps you have a link to your Veteran’s obituary? Possibly you have digital photos or documents? Sharing what you have on a Veteran’s page will help keep their memory alive for you and for future generations.
Please know that all content is reviewed by NCA moderators before being posted to your Veteran pages. This ensures that the content conforms to the VLM User Policy and appropriately honors your Veterans.
A VLM Customer Support representative is available Monday to Friday (excluding federal holidays, from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time) at VLM@va.gov or 1-866-245-1490.
U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Lisa Hollenbeck is a public affairs specialist with the National Cemetery Administration, Office of Engagement and Memorial Innovations.
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Outstanding memorial
I feel that this is a fantastic issue and for the amount of deployments that go on today, I am sure that our service men and women may like to share with others what has happened to them during that time away.
My brother, Monroe Hattem is MIA Dec. 25, 1944. He was on a troop transport ship, SS Leopoldville, that was sunk in the English Channel on Christmas Eve . Almost 800 soldiers lost their lives that night and the incident was covered up by the War Dept. for several reasons. My parents died never knowing the truth about how their son died.
It wasn’t till the History Channel did an hour long show in about the late 1990’s and then I found out what happened. Fortunately, I have a VCR tape of the show so that I can pass it on to my children and others. Watching it makes you sad and mad at the same time. I will not go into the details but there have been several books written about the incident and I managed to get a short “blurb” into them 2 of them about Monroe.
Every time I have tried to post something about him on these websites, it does not recognize the name. A cousin “by the exact same name” appears but he didn’t die in the war although he was a veteran. It’s a shame that MIA’s are not easily found in any searches. I have a lot of data such as troop rosters of his unit that I located through a heck of a lot of research over the years. His division was the 66th Black Panther Division and they were on their way to support the guys at the Battle Of The Bulge. Since I am now 87, I will pass all of it on to my sons and grandsons and pray they never have to go to war.
All 3 of my mother’s sons served in the Army. Since I was the youngest by far, I was lucky and only served in peace time. My other brother, Arthur, served in the latter days of WW2, was discharged and lived a good life afterwards.
I SEE A MISTAKE JANUARY 22, 1947 NOT 1927
age 13, I joined the Jr Naval Reserve, age 17 enlisted US Navy, father signed for me, boot camp climbed the rigging & slept in hammock on the USS Constellation, to the battleship USS Wyoming, to minesweeper USS Raven, dropping 300 lb depth charges on German U-boats before WWII, trans. to VGF-28 fighter squadron, trained on USS Ranger, to USS Charger, to USS Suwannee to invasion of Africa, to USS Chenango to Guadalcanal, Solomon islands, to USS Tulagi, to invasion of southern France, Lingayen Gulf Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, to USS Chloris, to squadron VPB-101 hurricane hunters, to VX-4 Cold War. enlisted January 1941 to January 22, 1927 received the Navy Commendation Medal for outstanding performance of duty for the southern France, Presidential Unit Citation for Africa, Naval Unit Commendation for Guadalcanal.
I was the Petty Officer in charge of the plane directors on the flight of the Tulagi with my picture on the cover of Naval Aviation News magazine. The first 40 years I couldn’t talk about it, now you can’t stop me. I wear all my medals on every occasion, not for me, but for all the ones that couldn’t, they were the real heroes. I. Robert Miller, they call me Bob
Apparently this is something that families and veterans cannot opt out of. The standards and procedures of who has access and who can post things to a page is a moving target. New options!!! Also what cemeteries are involved is a moving target. I.e. they want to extend to military run cemeteries and to veterans in private cemeteries. So avoiding this by being buried elsewhere is/may not be an not an option!!!! Just because the veteran’s data is available publicly is a cop out.., who cares about that. This doesn’t mean this is right nor does it justify participation without opting in. Want to be left alone..,
Good job. Thank you.