Nebraska County Duty to Bury and Mark a Veteran’s Grave

Section 80-104 imposes a duty rather than offering a benefit, and the distinction matters when a family is arguing with a county. It is the duty of the county veterans service committee to cause to be decently interred the body of any person discharged or otherwise separated with a characterization of honorable or general under honorable conditions from any arm of the military or naval service of the United States, who dies without leaving sufficient means to defray funeral expenses. Two clauses follow that are worth reading aloud. Such burials should not be made in any cemetery or burial grounds used exclusively for the burial of pauper dead. And the committee shall permit the surviving relatives of the deceased to conduct the funeral if they request to do so. A family that wants to hold the service itself is entitled to. Section 80-106 puts the cost on the county in which the veteran maintained legal residence at the time of death, and directs the county board to audit and pay the account as it would any other claim against the county. The provision applies except where cremated remains are disposed of under 71-1382.01, the unclaimed remains route that runs through a veterans service organisation to a state veterans cemetery. Headstones are handled twice, and the two provisions do different things. Section 80-105 covers the grave of a person buried under 80-104. It requires the grave to be marked with a headstone bearing the name of the deceased and the organisation they belonged to or served in, and requires the county veterans service committee, on the death and burial of such a person residing in the county, to apply to the federal government for a suitable headstone as provided by Act of Congress and to place it at the head of the grave. The county does the federal paperwork. Section 80-107 is much wider and does not depend on indigency at all. The county board of every county shall, on the application of the county veterans service committee, procure and furnish a suitable and appropriate metal marker for the grave of every person who served in the active duty armed forces or the reserve forces of the United States, or in the Nebraska National Guard in active duty federal service, or in the Nebraska National Guard on or after July 1, 1973; who was discharged or separated with a characterization of honorable or general under honorable conditions; and who is buried within the county. That third service route is the notable one. Nebraska National Guard service on or after July 1, 1973 qualifies with no federal active duty at all. A Guard member who drilled for six years in the 1980s and never deployed has a marked grave as of right in the county where they are buried. Section 80-108 provides for a petition for markers. A family arranging a burial should raise both sections with the county veterans service officer by name. The federal headstone or marker from the National Cemetery Administration and the county metal marker under 80-107 are different objects and a grave can have both.