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VA National Cemetery

Massachusetts National Cemetery

Connery Avenue · Bourne, MA 02532

Open for burial

Massachusetts National Cemetery is a VA national cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts. VA lists it as open for burials. Burial is free for eligible veterans, their spouses and dependent children.

Source: National Cemetery Administration (cem.va.gov), retrieved May 2026

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.

The Massachusetts National Cemetery was dedicated on October 11, 1980 and became the third new national cemetery to open in nearly 30 years. Calverton, NY, and Riverside, CA, were the first and second, respectively. The site was officially named the Veterans Administration National Cemetery of Bourne, MA, but over time the lengthy appellation changed in practice, if not in fact, to simply, Massachusetts National Cemetery.

Monuments and Memorials Massachusetts National Cemetery has a memorial trail where, as of June 2013, 50 memorials placed in memory of veterans from World War I to the modern era.

Notable interments

The National Cemetery Administration lists these people of note buried at Massachusetts National Cemetery, with section and site where recorded.

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.

Directions

Cemetery is equal distance from Logan Airport, Boston, MA, and T. F. Green Airport, Providence, RI. From Logan Airport, take the Ted Williams Tunnel to Interstate 93 south. Follow Interstate 93 south to Interstate 24 south. Follow Interstate 24 south and exit on Interstate 495 south, which continues, into Route 25 east. Go over the Bourne Bridge, at base of bridge there is a rotary, go ½ way around rotary onto Route 28 south toward Falmouth. Continue on Route 28 south approximately four miles to a second rotary. Go ¾ way around the rotary you will see the sign leading to Massachusetts Military Reservation. Exit the rotary at this point. Entrance to cemetery is approximately ½ mile from the rotary. From T. F. Green airport take Interstate 95 North to Providence and then exit on Interstate 195 east. Follow Interstate 195 east and exit on 25 east (follow signs to Cape Cod). Go over the Bourne Bridge then follow directions above.

Flowers and grounds rules

Cemetery policies are posted and readily visible to the public.

Floral arrangements accompanying the casket or urn at the time of burial, will be placed on the completed grave. They will be removed when they become unsightly or when it becomes necessary to facilitate cemetery operations such as mowing.

Who can be buried at Massachusetts National Cemetery?

VA national cemeteries accept a veteran who didn't receive a dishonorable discharge, a service member who died on active duty or in training, the veteran's spouse or surviving spouse (even if they remarried), and minor or, in some cases, unmarried adult dependent children. National Guard and Reserve members qualify under narrower rules. You can ask VA for a pre-need eligibility decision in advance; it does not reserve a gravesite.

What does burial here include at no cost?

  • A gravesite in any VA national cemetery with available space
  • Opening and closing of the grave
  • A government-provided burial liner
  • A government-provided headstone or marker
  • Perpetual care of the gravesite

Veterans also receive a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate (presented to the next of kin at the burial) and military funeral honors, which include the playing of Taps and two uniformed service members who present the flag. The committal service is held at a committal shelter, not at the grave, and lasts about 20 minutes. National cemeteries have no viewing facilities, so the funeral itself is held elsewhere.

How do you schedule a burial at Massachusetts National Cemetery?

  1. Gather the veteran's DD214 or other discharge papers, and the deceased's details (Social Security number, dates of birth and death, relationship to the veteran).
  2. Fax the discharge papers to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 866-900-6417, or email them to [email protected] with the deceased's name in the subject line.
  3. You or the funeral director call 800-535-1117 (Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET) to request Massachusetts National Cemetery and a date. National cemeteries hold burials Monday through Friday.

Where is the Massachusetts National Cemetery burial schedule?

VA posts a daily burial schedule for every national cemetery. Search it for Massachusetts National Cemetery to see the committal services planned there. It only lists burials whose families agreed to publish them. To change or cancel a burial that's already scheduled, contact Massachusetts National Cemetery directly at 508-563-7113.

Headstone, flag and burial allowance

  • Government headstone or marker: tell the scheduling office which headstone, marker, niche cover or medallion you want when you schedule the burial.
  • Burial flag: VA Form 27-2008.
  • Burial allowance: For a non-service-connected death on or after October 1, 2026, VA pays up to $1,032 toward burial and funeral costs and $1,032 for a plot; for a service-connected death on or after September 11, 2001, the burial allowance is up to $2,000. Claim it with VA Form 21P-530EZ. All benefits

After the funeral: survivor benefits and the estate

A surviving spouse, child or parent may qualify for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), a tax-free monthly VA benefit, for example when the death was service connected (VA Form 21P-534EZ). The veteran's estate is settled under Massachusetts law; our sister site ProbateUS explains how probate works in Massachusetts and lists each county's probate court. For the rest of the paperwork, from Social Security to bank accounts, DeathUS has a step-by-step checklist of what to do when someone dies.

Nearest cemeteries

The three veterans cemeteries closest to Massachusetts National Cemetery, by straight-line distance:

Funeral homes near Massachusetts National Cemetery

A funeral director usually arranges the burial with the cemetery. These are the closest funeral homes by straight-line distance. Each one links to its full listing on FuneralUS, our funeral home directory.

  1. 5.8 mi from the cemetery
  2. 5.9 mi from the cemetery
  3. 7.2 mi from the cemetery
  4. 7.6 mi from the cemetery
  5. John-Lawrence Funeral Home
    Marstons Mills, MA
    8.2 mi from the cemetery
  6. 8.3 mi from the cemetery

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