RI Demands Veterans’ Info from Volunteers Before Giving Cemetery Flags
Monday, May 08, 2017
The Rhode Island Office of Veterans Affairs is requiring that volunteers and veterans organizations provide information about each deceased veteran in return for cemetery flags in the coming year, which the state says is to collect data and prevent fraud — and at least one volunteer is calling “overkill.”
Ken Postle, who is the Cemetery Recovery Coordinator for the Blackstone Valley Historical Society is questioning why the state won’t use findagrave.com — which is run by ancestry.com — as a basis for its database, and raised a number of logistical concerns with Memorial Day approaching.
“So they’re duplicating efforts. This database already exists,” said Postle, of findagrave.com and the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Commission. “There’s a picture of every single known tombstone, never mind veterans. All the senior citizens, who play 'cemetery Sudoku,’ they takes pictures and post. In our recovery work alone, I’ve raised 3,000 stones under the ground, and we get the best possible picture.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Department however made the case for why they are requiring the information.
“We have no database of our veterans. We have no way of ensuring every veteran's grave is flagged for Memorial Day. We have no way of ensuring that over $120,000 of taxpayer money is being used as intended,” said Cara Condit with the Office of Veterans Affairs. “When I receive reports of the misuse of state property, I have no documentation or way to hold people accountable.”
Postle said he does not agree with the state's rationale.
“They refuse to acknowledge to findagrave.com, because its volunteer driven — and now they’ve asking for volunteers? I’ve got school kids who do this volunteer work, and I can’t put their names on the forms because they’re not 18,” said Postle of the state. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Requiring Info from Volunteers
Condit explained the information that the state is looking to collect.
“At least the veteran's name and the cemetery,” said Condit. “I would love to get as many details as possible and especially the branch and war period. I think it's important for the state to maintain a list of the veterans resting here in Rhode Island. "
"However, I understand that is often not feasible due to resources and the degradation of some of the stones. We have additional volunteers available to help as needed," Condit added. "A notation that there is a veteran in a specific cemetery, even if the name is unreadable, helps me to better ensure those veterans' graves are remembered.”
Postle noted that the data collection in addition to removing and replacing flags, would be an arduous task.
“If you’ve ever flagged, you’ve got [the flags] under your arms, you’re removing [the old ones] and the whole time you’re trying not to drop the flags,” said Postle. “So now volunteers are expected to be carrying a clipboard on top of that? And what about in inclement weather? There’s 3,000 [graves] at Notre Dame [Cemetery] and at St. Francis we’ve got 1,000. Some places it might be do-able, but some of these places are huge. And again - this information already exists!”
Postle noted that it was last week, when he was given the paperwork, that he began raising questions.
“I went down [to Exeter], because I’m getting the flags for a lot of a groups that can’t get down there. I was told I had to go to a particular veteran and get all this information,” said Postle. “So now I’m going to go to an 80 year old veteran, and ask for all of this? I get it, maybe seven or eight groups can cover the same cemetery, but you just can’t call them and figure out who’ll do it?”
Postle said that town DPWs used to handle the cemetery flags, but due to budget cutbacks, that it’s no longer possible most places.
Impact on Veterans
“I heard from someone at one Legion that no one’s going to want to do this. So that group will drop — and you need to get flags through a military group. They’re going to be eliminating aging-out groups,” said Postle.
“And I’ve heard from veterans who don’t want to speak out on this, as many know they’ll be dependent on the state one day," added Postle. "They’re fearful to say anything. They were the bravest of the brave, and this is what’s in the back of their heads? This is how we’re going to treat our veterans?”
Condit noted that the data collection would take years.
“This is a big initiative and it will likely take me 5 years to develop a good reference. To do it, I will need a lot of help. It is the selfless people and organizations who know these cemeteries because they legitimately place flags on the stones to memorialize our veterans,” said Condit. “They are in the best position to help me capture this information.”
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