Nevada State Veterans Cemeteries

Nevada operates state veterans cemeteries under NRS 417.200 to 417.220, and the eligibility section is more generous than the federal standard it starts from. NRS 417.210, subsection 1. A person is eligible for interment if the person: "(a) Is a veteran who is eligible for interment in a national cemetery pursuant to the provisions of 38 U.S.C. § 2402; or (b) Does not meet the criteria set forth in paragraph (a), but otherwise meets the definition of 'veteran' set forth in NRS 417.005 and: (1) Was a member of a reserve component of the National Guard; or (2) Received a commemorative plaque or urn furnished by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 2306(h)." Paragraph (b) is the expansion and it matters. NRS 417.005 defines a veteran to include a Nevada resident who was accepted for and assigned to duty in the National Guard or a reserve component "for a minimum of 6 continuous years" and was separated under conditions other than dishonorable. A Guard member with six continuous years and no federally qualifying active duty is not eligible for a national cemetery, and is eligible for a Nevada state veterans cemetery. Subparagraph (2) reaches a different group. 38 U.S.C. 2306(h) is the provision under which VA furnishes a commemorative plaque or urn for a veteran whose remains are unavailable for interment, which covers a veteran cremated and scattered, buried at sea or otherwise not present. Nevada treats receipt of that plaque or urn as a route into state eligibility. Now the cost, which does not follow eligibility. Subsection 2, last sentence: "No charge may be made for a plot or for the interment of a veteran described in paragraph (a) of subsection 1." Read that against paragraph (b). Free interment is guaranteed only for the veteran who is federally eligible under 38 U.S.C. 2402. A veteran eligible only through the Nevada expansion in paragraph (b) is outside the no-charge guarantee, and the section's heading refers to "fees". A Guard member relying on the six-year route should ask the cemetery superintendent what the charge is before assuming parity with a federally eligible veteran. This is the single most important practical point in the entry and no secondary description of the Nevada cemeteries carries it. Applying, subsection 2. An eligible veteran, a member of the veteran's immediate family, or a veterans' organisation recognised by the Director may apply for a plot by submitting a request to the cemetery superintendent on a form the superintendent supplies. Plots are assigned "in the order in which applications are received", and then the restriction: "A specific plot may not be reserved before it is needed for burial." So Nevada has no pre-need plot reservation. A veteran can establish eligibility in advance, and many do, but cannot hold a particular grave. A family expecting to choose a location will not be able to. Plot allowance, subsection 3: "One plot is allowed for the interment of each eligible veteran and for each member of his or her immediate family, except where the conditions of the soil or the number of the decedents of the family requires more than one plot." That is a separate plot per person rather than the double-depth arrangement several states in this catalog use, with a soil-condition and family-size exception. The landscaping rule is a genuinely Nevada provision and it has a default a family should know about. NRS 417.200, subsection 2 requires the cemetery superintendent, where the veteran has not indicated by testamentary instrument a desire for xeriscaping and where the interment application does not indicate it either, to "ensure that the area immediately above and surrounding the interred remains of the veteran in the veterans' cemetery is landscaped with natural grass." Subsection 2 of NRS 417.210 requires the application for interment to "provide for a selection to have the area immediately above and surrounding the interred remains of the applicant landscaped with natural grass or xeriscaping." So natural grass is the default in a desert state, xeriscaping is available, and the choice is made either in a will or on the interment application. A veteran with a preference should put it in the will, because the application may be completed by someone else after death. Staffing, NRS 417.200, subsection 1: the Director shall employ a cemetery superintendent to operate and maintain each veterans' cemetery, subject to the limits in NRS 417.090. What the sections do not say. There is no burial allowance, no headstone provision and no honours provision in these sections; the marker comes from VA under federal law and military funeral honours are arranged federally. And nothing in NRS 417.210 addresses a spouse's eligibility independently of the veteran's, beyond the "member of his or her immediate family" language in subsections 2 and 3.