GRAFTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia National Cemetery, one of two just a few miles apart, will be busy with ceremony this Veterans Day.
Grafton is home to both of West Virginia’s national veterans cemeteries. So remembrance of soldiers will start on Monday at the first, Grafton National Cemetery, and then conclude at the newer West Virginia National Cemetery.
Grafton has the longest ongoing Memorial Day service in the United States, but the presence of the two national cemeteries means Veterans Day is also an active day of observance.
“Veterans Day brings people out,” said Keith Barnes, the director of the West Virginia National Cemetery.
There are 137 national cemeteries across the country, all part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and including the two in West Virginia.
The first burials at the Grafton National Cemetery took place in 1867 for soldiers who died in the Civil War. The cemetery includes the burial site of Thornsbury Bailey Brown, believed to have been the first union casualty of the Civil War.
There are 2,162 veterans buried there. Two thirds of those buried there are from the Civil War era. Half are unknown.
Its 3.2 acres became too confining by the 1960s, and Grafton National Cemetery no longer takes on new burials. Meanwhile, West Virginians pushed for an additional site.
“It took that 20 years to make it happen,” Barnes said.
In 1987, West Virginia National Cemetery was opened at the former site of the West Virginia Industrial Home for Boys. The West Virginia National Cemetery is almost 90 acres and should be able to accept new burials well into the next century.
There are 6,757 veterans buried there now. Almost all are West Virginia soldiers and their spouses.
“It would be unusual if you didn’t have a connection,” Barnes said.
Barnes, an Army veteran who grew up in Kansas, has been at the West Virginia National Cemetery for five years.
He was a chaplain assistant at Fort Myer in Arlington, Va., and then moved on to work for 15 years at the adjacent Arlington National Cemetery.
He went on to work at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery for a couple of years before taking part in a year-long training program. After that, he started working in Grafton.
The National Cemetery Administration is one of three legs of the VA, including the medical services and the hospitals that the agency runs.
Almost all veterans, with the exception of some reservists, would be eligible for burial through the National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide, almost 15 percent of all veterans choose burial in a VA cemetery.
Barnes says his job overseeing the West Virginia National Cemetery is satisfying. He guides families through the final stage of their loved ones’ military service.
“A lot of people don’t get that sense of finality with what they do. You see the end of it,” he said. “This is a final benefit.”