USVI Veteran Burial Plot

Policy Letter 4 of April 15, 2020 sets out the burial entitlement under 3 V.I.C. chapter 1 § 8b(c), and the eligibility list is wider than the office's one-line summary suggests. Burial in all Virgin Islands cemeteries with spaces set aside for veterans shall be made available to all members of the Armed Forces and veterans discharged under conditions other than dishonorable who completed the required periods of service, and to their spouses, minor children, and under certain conditions an unmarried adult child. Also eligible: members of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine and Coast Guard Reserves and the Army and Air Force National Guard with twenty years of qualifying service, or who die while on active duty for training, active duty, or territorial active duty; and members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps of the Army, Navy or Air Force who die on active duty for training. The remarriage provision is the humane one and it is unusual. "If a surviving spouse of an eligible veteran marries a nonveteran, and the remarriage is terminated by death of or divorce from the nonveteran, the spouse is eligible for burial in the designated burial site set aside for veterans." Most jurisdictions in this catalog end a surviving spouse's benefit permanently on remarriage. The Virgin Islands restores it if the second marriage ends. Then the narrowing sentence, which is the one to read twice. "Only veterans who were bona fide residents of the Virgin Islands at the time they were either drafted or enlisted, whether residing in the Territory or attending college, are eligible for burial in the burial site set aside for veterans." That is the Virgin Islands Veteran test again, expressed in the words the territory's definition originally came from, with the college clause spelled out: a Virgin Islander who enlisted while away at college is covered. A veteran who moved to the territory after service is not. There is a wrinkle in how the territory's own documents handle this. The Office of Veterans Affairs summary lists the free burial plot under "Local Benefits Provided to Veterans Residing in the USVI," which reads as though residence is enough, while Policy Letter 4 and the statute behind it confine the reserved veterans section to those who were bona fide residents when drafted or enlisted. Where the summary and the policy letter differ, the policy letter quotes the statute. Put the question to the office before making arrangements. Burial expenses are a separate benefit with its own entry: the office reimburses a maximum of $5,000 for the burial expenses of Virgin Islands Veterans under the same Policy Letter 4 framework. The residency limit in § 8b(c) survived a 2026 attempt to remove it. Floor amendment 36-648 in the 36th Legislature would have struck the sentence confining the benefit to "veterans who were bona fide residents of the Virgin Islands at the time they were either drafted or enlisted"; it went no further than the floor on January 12, 2026, and no act of the 36th Legislature amends § 8b. The limit stands. The Virgin Islands has no VA national cemetery and no VA grant-funded territorial veterans cemetery. Puerto Rico, in the same VA Caribbean region, has two national cemeteries, of which Morovis is open. What the territory provides instead is these designated sections in local cemeteries. Federal burial benefits apply on top and are not replaced: a government headstone or marker, or a medallion for a privately purchased headstone; a United States burial flag; a Presidential Memorial Certificate; military funeral honours on request; and VA burial allowances, whose amounts and eligibility differ sharply between a service-connected and a non-service-connected death.