Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The rules regarding military grave markers have been thrown out the window after 140 years.
Since 1862, with the establishment of the National Cemetery Administration, the federal government has made provisions to identify the graves of military veterans.
The headstones, markers and burial receptacle provisions have fallen to the Administrator of Veterans Affairs since 1973.
The intent of United States Code Section 2306, Title 38, is to ensure that no veteran lies in an unmarked grave, not to mark the grave as that of a veteran.
It was illegal at all times for a grave to bear both a private and a government marker. If a private marker was ordered and placed on a grave with a government marker, the government marker was to be removed and, if stone, destroyed so the inscription could not be read, or, if bronze, returned to the government for recycling.
In December 2001 with the passage of Public Law 107-103 these restraints were removed for veterans whose deaths occur on or after Dec. 27, 2001.
Oakwood Cemetery has many examples of government-provided markers throughout the 250-acre graveyard. The rules regarding the stones or bronze plaques' placement haven't been followed to the letter.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has "had no choice but to rely on the integrity of those who complete and sign the application, thus testifying that the grave is not marked in any other way," wrote Lawrence J. De Meo Jr., director of the office of memorial programs, in 1999.
The popular bronze markers were often affixed to the backs of gravestones or to the fronts of the stones as long as the stone bore no other inscription.
Often the bronze markers were set in a cement slab while the gravesite also was marked with a private stone.
