National Cemetery Administration (NCA) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Join us in honoring our nation's interred Veterans throughout Memorial May.

VA, non-profits team up to honor Veterans during ‘Memorial May’ Throughout the month of May, VA will work with non-profit organizations Carry The Load, Travis Manion Foundation and Victory for Veterans to pay homage to Veterans interred in VA’s 157 National Cemeteries through a series of events, volunteer opportunities and shared stories leading up to Memorial...

VA national cemeteries remain open for interments and visitation during the federal government shutdown.

Honoring our nation’s Veterans and their families is our highest priority. To request and schedule an interment, please contact the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-800-535-1117, Monday – Friday from 8:00 am to 7:30 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm Eastern Time. All previously scheduled services will continue as planned.

Please reach out to your local cemetery if you have questions about visitation or scheduled services. Thank you for your understanding.

Tomorrow is
One of the first U.S. Army paratroopers, eventual Lt. Gen. James Gavin first enlisted in the Army in 1924, at the age of 17.

Fourteen months later he would be attending West Point. In August 1941 he attending parachute school in Fort Benning, Ga. He would be come part of the group responsible designing, testing, training and growing the U.S. paratrooper force, eventually literally writing the book on paratrooper tactics; Field Manual 31-30: Tactics and Technique of Air-Borne Troops.

Making a combat jump in Africa he would lead the first U.S. regimental combat jump, earning the Distinguished Service Cross and becoming one of the youngest generals at age of 36.

He would also jump during D-Day and Operation Market Garden. In the movie A Bridge too Far he was played by Ryan O’Neal.

After retiring from the Army as a Lt. Gen., he served as the Ambassador to France during the President John Kennedy’s administration.

Lt. General James Gavin is died in 1990 and is buried at the United States Military Academy Post Cemetery. He was 82.

You can leave a tribute to him, or 10 million other fallen Veterans at the VA’s online memorial, VLM https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/JAMESMAURICEGAVIN/788A1

NCA social media has merged with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to reach a broader audience of Veterans to share valuable burial and memorial benefits with. VA National Cemeteries with social media will maintain their respective pages to provide you with regional and local cemetery information. This page has been retired and is no longer monitored. Please follow us at our new home at www.facebook.com/VeteransAffairs

Since 2023, those inscriptions have been done within steps of the cemetery’s legion of gravesites directly on the 338-acre, landscaped burial grounds.

Inside the headstone engraving shop at Fort Sam's cemetery Since 2023, headstones at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery have been inscribed on the sprawling, landscaped burial grounds.