BIRDEYE — Randy Reeves, the presidential appointee who oversees the nation’s veterans cemeteries, dug his hand into the ground during an unannounced Thursday visit to the state-run veterans burial site in Birdeye.
On Friday, he’d be presenting the cemetery an award, and as he likes to do, he wanted to see the place for himself, even the soil. “Oh, it’s really, really good,” Reeves, a former cemetery manager, said of the turf.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs undersecretary for memorial affairs on Friday recognized the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery at Birdeye for scoring among the top four state-run veterans cemeteries in the country during an inspection earlier this year.
The cemetery, available to veterans and their spoues and dependents, is one of two managed by the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. (The other is in North Little Rock.) The federal VA runs three other national cemeteries in the Natural State.
Getting to Birdeye is the hard part. Located about an hour from Jonesboro and 40 minutes from Forrest City, the cemetery is decidedly in the middle of nowhere.
Nestled between expanses of row crops, mobile homes and the occasional plantation-style house, the cemetery sticks out with its modern administration building, its perfectly manicured lawn and the solar panels that power the irrigation system.
No one characteristic sets the place apart, Reeves said, it’s the consistently high standard that’s met everywhere a visitor can see.
The remote location, though, has prevented the cemetery from being used to its full potential.
Since opening in 2012, 389 people have been buried at Birdeye, Cemetery Manager Mary Anne Parker said.
In 2015 alone, the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery at North Little Rock interred 580 veterans.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson commended Parker on Friday, noting the importance to veterans of being laid to rest near their fellow soldiers.
Parker said she and her staff look every day for ways to improve the grounds. She deflected credit for Friday’s award, directing it toward a diverse staff, which includes caretakers with experience in farming, prisons maintenance and golf course management.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides burials for veterans who were honorably discharged from the armed forces. Burial benefits include a grave site, interment, perpetual care, a government headstone, a burial flag and a Presidential Memorial Certificate at no cost. Spouses and eligible dependents also may be buried with veterans, but in most cases there’s a small fee.
The state purchased the 100-acre property in Birdeye in 2008, and it began con- struction in 2010.
The federal VA grades cemeteries on a variety of factors, including interment operation, grounds maintenance and headstone care. It also conducts “customer-service surveys,” Reeves said, asking veterans’ families how the staff treated them.
Birdeye met or exceeded 81 of 86 of those measures, placing it in the top 5 percentile of state-run cemeteries in the U.S.
“This shows that Arkansas thinks so much of its veterans that they put a priority on honoring them in perpetuity,” Reeves said.
Parker uttered a brief “wow” after being read a congratulatory letter from U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., during Friday’s ceremony. Then, she looked out into the crowd of veterans, lawmakers and Gold Star families.
“We’re going to keep looking for ways to improve every day,” she said.
It’s that attitude, Reeves said, that makes Birdeye special.