There’s a 13-mile stretch of U.S. 287 north of Denver designated as the “Spc. Gabriel David Conde Memorial Highway.” The simple brown, rectangular sign with white letters doesn’t do justice to the heroic life of this soldier.

I never met Gabe, but I can tell you a lot about his time in service. After graduating from Berthoud High School in 2014, he enlisted in the Army and deployed to Afghanistan with the 25th Infantry Division. On April 30, 2018, Gabe was killed by enemy small-arms fire in the Tagab district of Kapisa Province northeast of Kabul.

Spc. Conde is interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery. He’s been there since May 14, 2018, when his family had a memorial service at the hallowed grounds.

His father, Bob Conde, recently shared with me, “We were blown away by the honor and the detail and the care that we received during his burial service … the whole thing was done so profoundly honoring Gabe.”

Gabe lived an all-too-short 22 years and served his country for his final three, long years.

I know about Gabe because family and friends contributed to his Veterans Legacy Memorial profile page. The Veterans Legacy Memorial (www.vlm.cem.va.gov) is the nation’s largest digital platform dedicated entirely to memorialize more than 10 million veterans and service members interred in VA national cemeteries, Department of Defense-managed cemeteries, VA grant-funded state/tribal/territory cemeteries, National Park Service cemeteries and private cemeteries around the world.

This month, VA added 210,000 additional pages for American veterans interred and honored in cemeteries and memorials managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission overseas.

The platform is a fantastic tool. It displays individual veteran profile pages with military service and cemetery information. This publicly available material is gathered from VA records and includes service branch and seal, dates of birth and death, rank, war period, decorations, emblem of belief, and cemetery information (address and phone, clickable map, gravesite and interment date).

The platform allows family, friends and the public to submit tributes (comments), images, biographical information and historical documents. I submitted some official documents earlier this month. One of those documents was Colorado Senate Joint Resolution 21-018, which designated that portion of U.S. 287 for Conde.

People can also create their veteran’s military service and personal achievements timeline and generate a word cloud that describes their veteran. “Stellar,” “gentleman” and “godly” are just a few in Gabe’s word cloud.

Finally, the website also allows visitors to share veteran profile pages by email and post them to social media. Users can “Follow a Veteran” to receive email alerts when new content is added to that veteran’s page.

Lt. Col. George W. Evans is buried in Pikes Peak National Cemetery on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. His wife, Betty, recently moved his remains from a local burial ground to Pikes Peak National Cemetery because the facility offers in-ground cremated burials, and because the cemetery hadn’t been built when he died in 2010. She wanted him to rest among his brothers and sisters in arms.

Betty also volunteers there every Friday and finds the time so rewarding. “It just seems like the people are so gracious and thankful for what we’re doing and how we’re trying to help.”

Betty’s job is not complex, but it is tremendously important to those who are dealing with a great amount of grief and loss. She says her volunteer team assists the people that come to the cemetery, asking questions, how to be buried there, the process they must go through. Afterward, Betty helps them with the remaining paperwork.

So, what does all this mean for my readers as we approach Memorial Day next week?

First, you can honor a veteran’s heritage by simply sharing the Veterans Legacy Memorial website with your colleagues: www.va.gov/remember. Let as many people know about this unique way to pay tribute to veterans.

Second, consider adding content for a veteran you know is interred at one of the cemeteries listed above. Any user can view pages and submit content. Logging in and registering with Veterans Legacy Memorial using an ID.me account will let a user contribute content without submitting a name and email address each time. Users can also “like” other user-submitted content and permit a user to Follow a Veteran. 

Find your veterans today at www.va.gov/remember and contribute to their legacies. Thanks for allowing me to walk alongside you behind friendly lines.

Victory!