Opinion: Let’s make sure our veterans can rest in peace
Chelsea Donaldson, CVLC’s Supervising Attorney of our VA Benefits and Discharge Upgrade Unit, recently published the below opinion article in Connecticut Mirror. The article was originally published on February 17, 2025.
In her article Let’s Make Sure Our Veterans Can Rest in Peace, she discusses the recent debate about expanding the Middletown Veterans Cemetery to ensure our heroes have the opportunity to be buried here at home.
Chelsea Donaldson is a member of the Connecticut Mirror’s Community Editorial Board.
Through my work at the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, I have represented veterans through many stages of their life – including death. Veterans have many benefits past death, including the right to a burial in a state cemetery reserved exclusively for veterans. In Connecticut, there is only one – the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown.
The cemetery is the final resting place for over 16,000 veterans. It stands as the largest memorial to veterans in the state. It is the final resting place for soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who served in our nation’s wars and those who served in peacetime. It is operated by the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs (CT DVA), which governs the solemn duty of ensuring that our veterans rest comfortably and peacefully in their passing and that their loved ones and others who wish to honor their memory can visit.
However, the cemetery is running out of room. CT DVA estimates that in less than three years, there will be no more plots available. As it stands, there are less than 800 plots left for Connecticut veterans……
Read the full article here.
About the Connecticut Mirror Community Editorial Board
The Connecticut Mirror’s Community Editorial Board (CEB) is a project to amplify diverse voices and perspectives across the state. Every year CT Mirror invites eight to 12 community members to join the Community Editorial Board. During this time members write opinion essays on their areas of expertise or interest and provide perspective to the CT Mirror news staff. The board members’ opinions are theirs alone and not those of The Connecticut Mirror or Connecticut News Project, Inc. Lean more.