North Dakota Veterans Cemetery

Section 37-03-14 requires the adjutant general to establish and operate the North Dakota veterans' cemetery and to locate it within or adjacent to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, which puts it at Mandan. There is one state cemetery, not several, which in a state this size means a long drive for a family in the north-east or the far west. The eligibility list in the statute is worth reading against the federal one. The adjutant general "shall provide lots in the state veterans' cemetery for the interment of deceased members of the national guard, other reserve components, and veterans, and their spouses, minor children, and unmarried adult children who were physically or mentally disabled and incapable of self-support." Guard and other reserve component members are named in their own right, without the federal requirement of a qualifying period of active duty or a retirement at sixty. An unmarried adult child who was disabled and incapable of self-support is covered, which the federal rule also allows but which families frequently do not know. Cost. There is no charge for the veteran's burial: the plot, the opening and closing of the grave and the headstone are provided. Caskets, urns and vaults are bought through a funeral home at the family's expense. Charges for an eligible spouse or dependent are set separately, and the figure to ask the cemetery for is the current one. Funding comes partly from the veterans themselves. The North Dakota veterans' number plate under 39-04-10.10 carries a fifteen dollar initial fee, of which five dollars goes to the veterans' cemetery maintenance fund, and a ten dollar annual surcharge paid to the adjutant general which is split five dollars to the cemetery trust fund and five to the maintenance fund. Both are waived entirely for a plate issued to a veteran who has been awarded the Purple Heart. The cemetery trust fund may also accept private and federal money, and the adjutant general may agree with the parks and recreation department for maintenance of the cemetery. The link between plate and cemetery runs the other way too. The veterans' number plate is issued to "individuals eligible for interment in the North Dakota veterans' cemetery", so the eligibility list in 37-03-14 is what decides who may hold the plate, rather than the general definition of veteran in 37-01-40. Pre-registration before need settles eligibility in advance and is the most useful thing a veteran can do for their family here.