The Georgia Archives Lunch and Learn presentation, “Our National Cemeteries: In Georgia, Across the Nation, and Around the World,” by Jamie Mitchum, will be held onsite. The presentation is on Friday, June 9 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Georgia Archives, 5800 Jonesboro Road in Morrow.
The Lunch and Learn presentation is free, and no registration is required.
Mitchum will discuss the history and current setup of our nation’s network of National Cemeteries. Everyone knows Arlington, but there are five government agencies that operate and maintain nearly 300 national cemeteries throughout the US, our territories, and in many foreign countries. Mitchum will tell a few stories he picked up along the way and underline what a magnificent job we do, as a nation, of caring for our deceased veterans and providing this final, and most sacred benefit. In particular, he’ll cover the five Veteran Cemeteries located in Georgia, two of which he served as Director.
Jamie Mitchum is a native of the beautiful and historic Charleston, SC. Following high school, he enlisted in the US Army and retired 25 years later as a Master Sergeant. His assignments included six stateside installations, four tours in Europe, and deployments to Cairo, Egypt, and Operation Restore Hope in Mogadishu, Somalia. As a Department of Defense Civilian, he worked for US Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and US Army Europe in Heidelberg, Germany.
From 2014-20 Jamie was a Cemetery Director for the National Cemetery Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. In this capacity, he was honored to direct burial services to over 15,000 Veterans and Spouses at five National Cemeteries throughout our nation, including the Marietta and Georgia National Cemeteries north of Atlanta.
For over four decades, his admiration and relationship with all our nation’s military cemeteries has flourished. In addition to his former career with the NCA, Jamie has visited 18 of the 22 American WWI and II cemeteries in Europe, and over 60 National and State VA Cemeteries in the US and Puerto Rico, and has visited Arlington National numerous times since 1974. In summer 2023, he will intern with Blake Learning Solutions to design education products for Arlington Cemetery.
Heeding the advice given to him in July 1974 during a chance encounter with former vice-president Spiro Agnew, he graduated KSU in December 2022 (History and Public History) and continues to use his hard-earned GI Bill as a full-time graduate student at Georgia State University, working towards a Masters in Historic Preservation-Public History.
In 1981, 17-year-old Jamie met his bride-to-be on a Greyhound Bus heading to Milwaukee. After a temporary pause, they renewed their romance and were married at the Marietta Courthouse in 2019. Naturally, Jamie took Mary, his beautiful new bride, to the Marietta National Cemetery for photos. Together they are the proud parents of 5 children, aged 19 to 33.
