Markers available for veteran’s graves
May 21, 2009
ECO Staff – Laure Cioffi, senior journalist
ELLWOOD CITY -- When Fred Gentile died in 2000, he fell into a period where the federal government had taken away the opportunity to put granite or bronze markers on the graves of veterans.
But just a few weeks ago his daughter, Barb Gentile, was able to see the marker installed on his grave at Holy Redeemer Cemetery.
“I think all veterans deserve a lot,” she said. “We live the life we live because of them.”
Fred Gentile was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War.
Barb Gentile said the veteran’s marker was taken care of local funeral director Sam Teolis.
Teolis said he’s been trying to get the word out to veterans that the markers are now available.
The Federal Memorial Service had regularly offered these markers to veterans up until 1990 when President George H.W. Bush cut money from the veteran’s services budget.
Teolis said the program was reinstituted in 2001, but only now has the federal government allowed the markers to be placed on graves of those who were buried from 1990 to 2001.
Teolis said his funeral home alone buried 284 veterans in that 11-year span that the government stopped providing markers on the graves. He estimates there are at least 300 veterans in the Ellwood City area that could receive the markers on their graves now that the program has been revived.
The only cost to the veteran’s family would be the installation in concrete, Teolis said.
The Lawrence County Veterans Affairs office pays $75 toward the cost and the Beaver County Veterans Affairs pay $50 toward the installation, he said.
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