What Tallahassee National Cemetery wants your Veteran to know

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Tallahassee National Cemetery, located on the city’s southeast side, encompasses 250 acres and will eventually serve more than 83,000 Veterans across the Big Bend.

Director Raymond Miller sat down with WCTV’s Ben and Katie Kaplan on Friday to talk a little bit about a couple of related programs for Veterans and their families.

1.) The Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM): According to the VA, the VLM is a digital platform dedicated to the memory of more than 4.3 million Veterans. It includes interactive features that allow family, friends, and comrades to post tributes, upload images, and share their Veteran’s military service timeline and achievements, biographical information, historical documents, and more.

The service is free. For more information, click here.

2.) The Pre-Need Program: The Pre-Need program is an important step for someone to find out if they are eligible to be buried at any VA-run national cemetery across the United States. Veterans can apply in advance. The process is called a pre-need determination of eligibility and it can help make the burial planning process easier for family members during their time of need.

For more information, click here and read the instructions.

According to the VA, burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces who have met a minimum active duty service requirement and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable. A Veteran’s spouse, widow or widower, minor dependent children, and under certain conditions, unmarried adult children with disabilities may also be eligible for burial. Eligible spouses and children may be buried even if they predecease the Veteran. Members of the reserve components of the armed forces who die while on active duty or who die while on training duty, or were eligible for retired pay, may also be eligible for burial.

According to its website, Tallahassee National Cemetery was dedicated on May 22, 2015. The first burial took place on October 16, 2015.

It is located at 5015 Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee, Fl. The phone number is 850-402-8941.

This interview was done in conjunction with WCTV’s ‘It’s Our Honor’ series, which is airing every Friday at 4:30 p.m. in advance of a live, hour-long broadcast from Washington, D.C., on Monday, April 25 at 4 p.m.

Watch the second installment: ‘It’s Our Honor’: Tallahassee Korean War vet remembers the ‘forgotten war’

Watch the first installment: ‘It’s Our Honor’: Valor Team gives terminal veterans final salute

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