Burial at Massachusetts National Cemetery: A family guide

History of Massachusetts National Cemetery

Massachusetts National Cemetery is located in Barnstable County on Cape Cod, approximately 65 miles southeast of Boston and adjacent to the Otis Air Force Base.

On June 18, 1973, Congress passed the National Cemetery Act which transferred 82 of the Army's national cemeteries to the Veteran's Administration (VA). The following year, the VA's National Cemetery System adopted the regional cemetery concept plan in which one large national cemetery would be built within each of the 10 standard federal regions, as established by the General Services Administration. A policy was also established that new cemeteries would only be created on land already owned by the federal government.

Twenty five years had passed since the government last acquired land for construction of a new national cemetery and that was in 1949 for the Willamette National Cemetery, in Oregon. No new national cemetery had been built in the New England region in nearly forty years, since 1936, when the Long Island National Cemetery opened.

During the mid-1970s, when the National Cemetery System was looking to expand, it determined that the largest veteran population in the northeast was centered in the Boston area. A search soon commenced to find a suitable site for a national cemetery, nearby. The difficult task of locating land which would be available to the government at no cost eventually led to the identification of a 749-acre tract on the 22,000-acre Otis Air Force Base as the most likely site. The base occupied land that was leased to the Department of Defense (DOD). A portion of this lease was terminated and the title for 749.29 acres was transferred to the VA's National Cemetery System in 1976. The Otis tract became the first parcel of land acquired by the National Cemetery System for the specific purpose of building a new national cemetery since 1949.

Notable veterans buried at Massachusetts National Cemetery

The National Cemetery Administration documents the following veterans of note buried at Massachusetts National Cemetery, listed by section and site as recorded in the cemetery's official register.

• Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Recipients receive the Medal of Honor from the President on behalf of Congress. It was first awarded during the Civil War and the eligibility criteria, medal design, and recognition on a recipients' grave marker have all evolved over time. There are 434 Medal of Honor recipients interred at VA national cemeteries including 6 double recipients.
• » Medal of Honor recipients interred or memorialized here:
• Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti (Afghanistan). Massachusetts native Jared C. Monti (1975–2006) graduated from Bridgewater-Raynham High School in 1994. He had joined the National Guard's delayed-entry program as a junior and at 18 completed basic training. Monti was deployed five times over twelve years. On his last mission, Monti was with the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan. He was leading a 16-member intelligence-gathering team on June 21, 2006, when they encountered enemy fire. One of his soldiers was wounded, and Monti risked his own life twice to rescue him and died on a third attempt. President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Monti's family in 2009. He is buried in Section 11, Site 38.
• Hospital Corpsman Richard David DeWert (Korea). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for service in the U.S. Navy in recognition of courageous initiative rendering medical assistance and heroic self-sacrifice in Korea, April 5, 1951. His remains were returned to the United States in October and interred in Woodlawn National Cemetery in New York. When Massachusetts National Cemetery opened, his family requested his remains be reinterred in his home state which occurred on October 14, 1987, in Section 5, Site 167.
• Other Burials
• Massachusetts-born Melina Olive Shaw (nee Girard) was among the 233 "Hello Girls" who served in the U.S. Army during World War I—a status officially recognized only in the 1970s. Her French Canadian father was a physician and Olive likely learned French from his assistants. Both her parents died when she was a child, and she wed James Shaw in 1909 but the marriage was short-lived. Shaw may have studied at the Sorbonne before the war, but she was attending the New England Conservancy in 1918 when she applied for the bilingual telephone-operator position with the Army Signal Corps. After the war she worked for U.S. Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers. Private Shaw was one of eighteen living "Hello Girls" veterans honorably discharged in 1979 after 61 years. She died the following July and became the first interment at Massachusetts National Cemetery on October 14, 1980 (Section 1, Site 1).
• Unknown United States Soldier. Interred on August 4, 1990, in Section 5, Site 107. The remains were unearthed during highway excavation in South Carolina in the 1980s. He was identified as a member of the "Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry" by the buttons from his uniform. Additionally, six unknown Union soldiers interred June 10, 2006 in Section 14.

Eligibility for burial at Massachusetts National Cemetery

Planning ahead for a Veteran's or loved-one's final resting place can eliminate unnecessary delays and reduce stress on a family at a difficult time.

The Department of Veterans Affairs covers the grave plot, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care, a government-furnished headstone or marker, and a U.S. burial flag at no cost to eligible families.

Visiting hours

Visitation Hours: Open daily from dawn to dusk. Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day. VA will continue its practice of honoring special requests for weekend burials for religious purposes, in cases of service members killed in action and on at least one day of any three-day Federal holiday weekend at all open VA national cemeteries.

How to schedule a burial at Massachusetts National Cemetery

1. The funeral home or family contacts the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-800-535-1117 (24/7 for active funeral arrangements).
2. Provide the veteran's full name, date of birth, social security number, dates of service, branch, and date of death.
3. Fax or email the DD-214 to the cemetery's interment office for verification.
4. Once eligibility is confirmed (typically 30–60 minutes for complete documentation), the cemetery assigns a date, time, and committal shelter.
5. The funeral home transports the deceased to Massachusetts National Cemetery at the assigned time. The cemetery handles opening, closing, and perpetual care from that point.

Where Massachusetts National Cemetery sits in the Massachusetts cemetery system

Massachusetts National Cemetery is one of the veteran cemeteries operating in Massachusetts. The cemetery is currently accepting new in-ground and columbarium interments. Families should verify status before planning.

For families considering alternatives, the nearest veteran cemeteries appear in our cemetery sidebar. If Massachusetts National Cemetery is fully reserved, those alternatives are typically the next options.