HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Earlier this month, the City of Huntsville unveiled an app that helps locate the final resting places of veterans buried in Maple Hill Cemetery.
Will Ford, a senior at UAH, played a crucial role in helping collect the data needed by the city. However, this was no small task. Ford walked every inch of the nearly 100-acre cemetery to mark the graves of veterans properly.
Ford is studying geographic information systems at UAH and his work was a part of an internship with the City of Huntsville this past summer.
Maple Hill Cemetery is located in Five Points and holds the graves of hundreds of military personnel, from as far back as the Revolutionary War to as recent as Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I share a great deal of respect of veterans and their families,” said Ford. “I come from one so if I can it’s just something that I feel like if I can give back to these families, to the people of North Alabama, Alabama, anywhere, I think that’s what kept me going through those hot Alabama summer months.”
The app is needed because there is a lack of consistency in how graves are marked. Tara Sloan, cemetery director for the City of Huntsville, said the app will help veterans buried at Maple Hill be remembered during the holidays.
“Years past, we’ve had concerns from our constituents that their loved one was missed because they were unmarked or because the veteran symbolization that they have could be something as small as a medallion that was attached to an upright headstone,” said Sloan. “We hope to encourage these entities that want to attribute our veterans by laying wreaths or placing flags to look at the data so they can get a proper count when they are going to honor them.”
In order to collect the needed information, Ford used a GPS device to log names, birth and death dates, military branches and the wars in which they fought. His work will help preserve not only Huntsville’s history but American history.
“That’s something that I’m proud of and it’s very cool to see something like this come out to help people,” said Ford.
The work doesn’t stop here, however. Maple Hill is the “pilot program” for tracking this data. Sloan hopes to repeat this effort at the remaining cemeteries in the city.
Any families of veterans whose graves are not marked on the app are encouraged to email [email protected] to provide the information. To use the new web app, visit the City of Huntsville Cemetery Search.
