Long Island National Cemetery


Long Island National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in Suffolk County, New York. It comprises the northern section of an area known as "Pinelawn," which consists of a grouping of cemeteries and memorial parks situated along Wellwood Avenue - these include Pinelawn Memorial Park, St. Charles / Resurrection, Beth Moses, New Montefiore and Mt. Ararat Cemeteries. Its mailing address is Farmingdale. It borders East Farmingdale along its western edge and is located within the CDPS of Wyandanch, in the Town of Babylon, and Melville in the Town of Huntington. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses, and as of 2014, had more than 346,000 interments.
In 2016 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

Long Island National Cemetery was established in 1936 with a purchase of of land from Pinelawn Cemetery to answer a need after World War I of a large number of veterans, and not enough burial space in the urban cemeteries in New York City. At the time the only National Cemetery in the area was Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn, and it had very limited area available. The land was developed and burials began in March 1937. Within its first 8 years, it saw over 10,000 interments from World War II.
A section of the cemetery has the interments of World War II prisoners of war, including 37 Germans and 54 Italians. There are also 35 British Commonwealth servicemen buried here from the same war.

Notable monuments