Families of veterans in greater Buffalo, Rochester and Batavia are observing Memorial Day placing flags and honoring their loved ones at the Western New York National Cemetery for the first time this year.The US Dept. of Veterans Affairs dedicated the cemetery in late November 2020, with the first internments at the end of that year. The 269-acre Pembroke site on Indian Falls Road in Genesee County is planned to serve more than 96,000 veterans and family members in the Buffalo and Rochester area.
Years in the making, the national cemetery is the first to be located in Western New York. Previously the nearest option for internment in one was in Bath, NY, some 85 miles- an hour and a half's drive- from the Corfu site, and roughly 2 hours from Buffalo or Rochester.
With the addition of Western New York, the state currently has six open VA national cemeteries, including: Woodlawn in Elmira, Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga in Schuylerville, Calverton in Calverton, Bath in Bath and Long Island in Farmingdale