Main Post Cemetery receives facelift with new headstones, realignments

Official Statements

• Fort Knox, November 10: “FORT KNOX, Ky. — Contractors have been busy at Fort Knox Main Post Cemetery for the past month carefully digging up broken and damaged headstones that have been set in concrete and replacing them with new headstones.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “The Arlington National Cemetery-funded project will further enhance the honor and respect afforded to those interred there, according to Fort Knox Environmental officials. Tim Pohlman, a cemetery responsible official and Operations Branch chief at the Directorate of Public Works, said the work is “a maintenance project to ensure we are complying with regulations and maintaining our Shrine status.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “We are only allowed a minimal variance in headstones being out of alignment or improper height to maintain our status,” he continued. “However, it is much more than just maintaining a coveted Shrine status; it is about the paying our utmost respect for the hallowed grounds in which so many service members and their Families are laid to rest.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “Whether damaged by weather or mowing, many of the headstones have chips and grooves in them. Many also have either sunk below a height threshold or leaned due to settling over the years. Officials identified the issue years ago and have been planning to replace those headstones set in concrete and adjust the ones that are leaning and low.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “When we first took over the cemetery in 2023, we started reviewing all of the regulations like AR 290-5 and what it says about the height of the headstones - how they all have to be plumb in a row,” said Niki Mills, also a cemetery responsible official and manager of Cultural Resources. “At that time, we started picking sections and doing what we could, but we quickly realized after a year of trying to fix things that there are a lot of headstones out there that are in concrete.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “Mills explained how the idea of filling headstones with concrete worked well for the moment. “But as the concrete starts to settle and the ground starts to shift, those headstones are impossible to straighten,” she said. “So, we have rows out there that are kind of snaggle-toothed and irregular. We have leaning headstones that we can’t straighten and headstones that are below regulation heights.” Army regulations state that headstones must be between 24” and 26” in height.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “Mills and Pohlman spent hours carefully probing headstones to determine which ones were buried in concrete. Once they identified them, they began the work of ordering replacement headstones for those as well as any headstones that were damaged. “It’s probably pretty close to 50% of them that are set in concrete,” said Mills, which amounts to around 290 stones. Mills said most of the new stones are on site next to the cemetery, ready to be set in the soil.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “After securing the funding for the projects in fiscal 2026, they received bids and locked in on contractors to do the work. The first job concluded in October. The second one, a much larger job, began Nov. 10. Pohlman said the work is only beginning.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “We have several other sections with headstones in concrete collars, sporadically arranged across the entire cemetery,” said Pohlman. “Our goal is to have all concrete collars removed within the next three years so we can maintain proper alignment and height in an efficient and cost-effective manner.” Mills said she sees their efforts as much more than just following regulations.”

• Fort Knox, November 10: “I feel very fortunate, very humbled that I get to be a cemetery responsible official,” said Mills. “I start my day out there every day with a quick inspection, making sure everything is dress-right-dress and in order for those buried there and their loved ones. “Main Post Cemetery is a very peaceful place, a very reverent place; a place of great honor for those and their families who served the nation honorably.”