Veterans' burials nonstop at national cemeteries

[flashl]

As members of the color guard lowered their rifles, the smell of bitter smoke drifted over the family and friends of former Army Sgt. Ellis Hale, a Vietnam War veteran who died of prostate cancer at age 59. Sniffles and gentle sobs accompanied a recording of taps.

...

The scene at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery is repeated nationwide more than 100 times a day. Military veterans are being buried at such a rapid rate that national cemeteries use heavy equipment to make room.

"We're still in growth mode right now," said Bill Tuerk, under secretary for memorial affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "We're in a very high demand time period and we're trying to respond to it."

An average of 1,800 veterans die each day, and 10 percent of them are buried in the country's 125 national cemeteries, which are expected to set a record with 107,000 interments, including dependents, this year. And more national cemeteries are being built.

The peak year for veterans' deaths will be either 2007 or 2008, Tuerk said. An estimated 686,000 veterans died in 2007. While many World War II veterans are dying, so are an increased number of Korean War and Vietnam veterans.

STL Today

[TomInTib]

1. I'm just gonna have 'em drag me out back of the house.

Far enough away so they won't have to smell me, let the animals and the elements do what they do so well.

Those cemeteries are eternally soulless.