For our vets
I came home last night to meet today with the local funeral director to plan my (and my wife's) funerals. I was surprised to find out that there are a few bennies afforded vets who served in war time---but you need a copy of your DD214 and Form 825B. If you do not have them it would be wise to apply for them. I am going to email copies to the funeral home and they will have them on file.
Among the bennies: An American Flag used to cover the casket (ours will be rented), the flag is retained by the family. A cash stipend of a few hundred dollars, an "honor guard" provided by your branch of service and up to 10 death certificates (which cost $20 ea in PA), and a grave marker---which I don't know what we will do with that since we have not intended to have grave stones.
Both my wife and I will be cremated and our ashes taken to our private family cemetery (dating back to about 1740), which is what we did with my parents.
There is no reason to burden our children with all those details.
Just for the record---I'm not planning on using those bennies anytime soon
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis