Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery

The Rhode Island Veterans' Memorial Cemetery sits on the grounds of the Joseph H. Ladd school in Exeter under section 30-25-14, managed by the director of the department of human services through an administrator who must himself or herself be an honorably discharged veteran. Eligibility has a federal floor and a state addition, and the state addition is broader than the floor. The director promulgates rules governing eligibility that must not be inconsistent with 38 U.S.C. § 2402, the federal national cemetery eligibility provision. That is the floor. On top of it, the statute provides directly that "any person who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, or Marine Corps of the United States for a period of not less than two (2) years and whose service was terminated honorably" is eligible. Two years of honorable service, with no wartime period, no campaign, and no minimum active duty beyond the two years. A peacetime veteran who would not meet the federal minimum active duty service requirement can still be buried here. The National Guard and Reserve provisions are more generous still. A Guard member killed in the line of duty is eligible. So is one honorably discharged after completing at least six years of service in the Rhode Island National Guard or Reserve, together with their spouse. And a Guard member or reservist honorably discharged after at least six years with another state's Guard qualifies, with their spouse, if they were a Rhode Island resident for at least two consecutive years immediately prior to death. Honorable service in the active forces or reserves counts toward the six years, so a mixed career adds up. There is no cost for the veteran. The director may charge a grave liner fee for the interment of an eligible spouse or eligible dependents, equal to the department's cost for the liner, which is the only routine charge in the section. Two provisions in the section have nothing to do with eligibility and are worth knowing anyway. Subsection (b) bars any domestic animal from the grounds, whether at large or under restraint, except seeing eye guide dogs, hearing ear signal dogs, other service animals required by federal law, and personal assistance animals under chapter 40-9.1. Violation carries a fine of not less than five hundred dollars. A veteran who relies on a service dog is expressly covered; a family thinking of bringing a pet to a graveside should not. Subsection (c) is the kind of benefit that only exists where someone noticed a real problem. The Rhode Island office of veterans services bears the cost of all tolls incurred by motor vehicles that are part of a veteran's funeral procession originating from Aquidneck Island and ending at the veterans' memorial cemetery, with the executive director of the turnpike and bridge authority assisting in administration and coordination. Getting from Newport to Exeter means crossing tolled bridges, and the State pays for the procession. Ask the funeral director to arrange it, because it is a reimbursement program that has to be coordinated rather than a toll booth that waves you through. Military funeral honors are separate and come under section 30-25-1. No disability rating is involved anywhere in this entry.