{"id":84897,"date":"2025-02-03T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T08:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/?p=84897"},"modified":"2025-01-31T18:21:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T18:21:52","slug":"va-expands-access-to-veterans-legacy-memorial-allowing-veterans-to-chronicle-their-life-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/2025\/02\/03\/va-expands-access-to-veterans-legacy-memorial-allowing-veterans-to-chronicle-their-life-story\/","title":{"rendered":"VA Expands Access to Veterans Legacy Memorial, Allowing Veterans to Chronicle their Life Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:30% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"122\" height=\"114\" src=\"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/files\/2025\/01\/header-logo-e1738000994398.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-84898 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expanded the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vlm.cem.va.gov\/\">Veterans Legacy Memorial<\/a> (VLM) \u2014 the nation\u2019s first digital platform dedicated to the memory of Veterans and service members \u2014 to allow Veterans to tell their own story before they pass away. The new \u201cYour Story, Your Legacy\u201d feature will allow Veterans who have been approved for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/burials-memorials\/pre-need-eligibility\/\">VA\u2019s pre-need eligibility determination for burial in a VA national cemetery<\/a> to log in to a secure website where they can privately submit images, autobiographies, military and life milestones, and historical documents.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VLM offers family, friends, and now Veterans a way to chronicle the life of a Veteran by uploading written tributes, photos, biographies, documents, and other information. It is the nation\u2019s largest online memorial space dedicated to Veterans, with nearly 10 million interactive VLM pages already on the website for those interred in VA national cemeteries, Department of Defense-managed cemeteries, VA grant-funded state\/tribal cemeteries, National Park Service cemeteries, and private cemeteries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA will keep the content secure until the Veteran passes away and VA approves a request for a burial or memorial benefit. Following approval, the content the Veteran submitted will become public and appear on their VLM page on the public-facing website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe legacies we leave behind come in many forms,\u201d said Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters. \u201cProviding Veterans with resources to document their stories while they are still with us ensures their voices are heard and allows family members, friends, and others to appreciate the experiences of those who served.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veterans who have been approved for pre-need eligibility will receive an email directing them to the \u201cYour Story, Your Legacy\u201d landing page. Here\u2019s where to apply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/find-forms\/about-form-40-10007\/\">online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the VLM website launched in 2019, more than 155,000 submissions have been made to Veteran profile pages. NCA moderators review all content submissions before being posted to a Veteran&#8217;s page to ensure it conforms to the VLM User Policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For information about VA burial benefits, visit one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cem.va.gov\/find-cemetery\/all-national.asp\">VA\u2019s National Cemetery Locations<\/a> in-person, visit online at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/burials-memorials\/\">VA burial benefits and memorial products<\/a>, or call toll free at 800-827-1000. To plan for you and your family, visit NCA\u2019s pre-need eligibility <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/burials-memorials\/pre-need-eligibility\/\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The State of Hawaii, Department of Defense (HIDOD)\u2019 Retiree News does not endorse any of the external hyperlinks listed or posted on this site. This includes linked websites, information, products, or services contained therein. We are a government run website for which transparency and accountability are paramount. HIDOD cannot have the appearance of endorsement and are bound by the HIDOD Social Media Policy concerning political posts being respectful, honest, and accurate. Operational Security will additionally be adhered to. Retiree News does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at linked sites. Some of the sites linked to may limit the number of stories you can access without a paid subscription. All links were provided with the intent of meeting the mission of the HIDOD\u2019s version of Retiree News.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expanded the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) \u2014 the nation\u2019s first digital platform dedicated to the memory of Veterans and service members \u2014 to allow Veterans to tell their own story before they pass away. The new \u201cYour Story, Your Legacy\u201d feature will allow Veterans who have been approved for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":84898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"32428,67512,49157,13352,47058,32804","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12409],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vapihcs-veterans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84906,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84897\/revisions\/84906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}