Apr 21, 2026
Two years ago, members of VFW Post 1617 in Derry, New Hampshire, embarked on an ambitious journey: to document the more than 1,500 veterans buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, located in East Derry, New Hampshire.
The Post noticed that over the years, volunteers for their Memorial Day events had trouble discerning veteran graves from non-veteran graves. Members say that they also were driven to pursue this project in part from a quote from President Abraham Lincoln: “Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”
When asked about the challenges they faced in trying to identify veteran graves, Post member and project initiator Jim Ash identified two obstacles they had to overcome: missing VA markers on gravestones and subsidence.
“It was not uncommon for families to opt for a cash payment from the VA in lieu of a gravestone,” Ash described. “To identify veterans without markers, we relied on our town records, websites such as Find a Grave and through discussions with Post members.”
The second challenge involved navigating Mother Nature.
“Over the years, flat stones become covered with dirt and growth, making them not readily visible,” Ash said. “This issue was more common in the older sections of the cemetery, where the stones were originally put in place without a concrete or chip-stone base.”
Nine Post 1617 members, including Ash, contributed more than 900 volunteer service hours to locate and identify which gravesites belonged to veterans.
“A great deal of time was spent walking around the cemetery to view each grave, looking for the telltale anomalies in the earth, indicating the possible presence of a buried flat stone,” Ash said. “When VA stones were discovered, and if they were significantly below grade, they would be lifted out of the ground and reset on top of a new chip stone base, requiring significant time and effort.”
Through their efforts, Post members successfully identified a total of 1,560 veterans, including their names, rank, branch of service, birth date and death date. Among these 1,560 veterans were 54 purple heart recipients, 33 service members who were K.I.A., six former prisoners of war and three silver star recipients.
“It is the fulfillment of our mission: ‘perpetuate the memory and history of our dead,’” Ash said. “Without the intervention of our Post members and the community, these service members would have remained lost to time. Now that they are visible again, they can be more readily honored with flags on Memorial Day and throughout the year.”
This article is featured in the 2026 April issue of Checkpoint. If you're a VFW member and don't currently receive the VFW Checkpoint, please contact VFW magazine at magazine@vfw.org.