Digital remembrance platform keeps veterans' memories, stories alive

1st Lt. John Marshall Runkle Jr., U.S. Army, Iraq War, West Point graduate, killed in action in Afghanistan, 101st Airborne Division, member of James Stevenson American Legion Post 499 in West Salem, Ohio

Chief Petty Officer Ernest Arthur Costa, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy -- Boatswain’s Mate, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, former post chaplain and member of Elk Grove American Legion Post 233 in Elk Grove, Calif.

Capt. Victory Antoine Moitoret, U.S. Navy, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, American Legion member

Cpl. Roland Maurice Jefferson, U.S. Army Air Force, World War II, American Legion member, first African American botanist at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

So that their stories and others will continue to be told and seen, the National Cemetery Administration provides the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) website, the nation’s first digital platform dedicated entirely to the memory of more than 4.3 million veterans interred in VA’s national cemeteries and in VA grant-funded cemeteries. 

Launched in 2019, VLM’s individual veteran profile pages are populated with military service and cemetery information. This publicly available data is gathered from VA records and includes service branch with logo, birth and death dates, rank, war period, decorations and emblem of belief.

Interactive features added to the site in 2020 and 2021 allow family, friends and others to post tributes (comments), upload images, and share their veterans’ military service timeline and achievements, biographical information, historical documents and more. The site also allows visitors to share veteran profile pages by email and post them to Facebook and Twitter.

Content is submitted using various text fields, drop-down choices and drop-and-drag options. All content is reviewed by VLM moderators before being posted to veteran pages to ensure it conforms to the VLM user policy and appropriately honors veterans. To date, more than 32,000 items have been posted to veteran pages.

To see and contribute content to John Marshall Runkle’s VLM page, click here.

To see and contribute content to Ernest Arthur Costa’s VLM page, click here. 

To see and contribute content to Victory Antoine Moitoret’s VLM page, click here.

To see and contribute content to Roland Maurice Jefferson’s VLM page, click here.

To find and contribute content to other veterans’ VLM pages, go to va.gov/remember.

Marine Corps veteran Lisa Hollenbeck is a public affairs specialist with the National Cemetery Administration’s Office of Engagement and Memorial Innovations.