There are over 6 million veterans and family members of
veterans buried across the United States.
And when you want to pay your respects, it can be very hard to locate a
veteran’s burial place. The
department of Veterans Affairs keeps a massive database of burial sites of
veterans and their beneficiaries, such as spouses and children. But this database is jumbled, messy and
confusing. But a new online tool
has cleaned up this data and made it searchable and easy to navigate. Now, anyone can easily find a veteran grave for free on
LocateGrave.org.
Users can search for a veteran by name, cemetery, date of
birth, military rank and military branch. Once you have narrowed down your
search, you can click on a veteran to see the detailed information
regarding their burial. A map will
help you locate the cemetery and the cemetery’s phone number will be
displayed. If you are logged in to
facebook, you can also leave a prayer or note to remember the veteran.
A similar online tool also powered by FindTheData.org is the Medal of Honor Recipients
database. Like the veteran grave
locator, the Medal of Honor tool allows you to search for recipients based on
war, rank and name.
This is a guest post
written by Evan Thomas, a student at UCSB that has partnered with FindTheData
to help create these tools.
FindtheData is an unbiased search engine that allows you to compare
everything from Section-8 Housing to Non-Profit Organizations. If you have any questions or comments
about the grave locator, feel free to contact Evan at evan_thomas (@)
umail.ucsb.edu