Dixon, Calif. – The Department of Veterans Affairs has named Michael H. Henshaw as the new Director of Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, CA. He reports for duty on Tuesday, January 17th. In his new post, he is responsible for all burial, maintenance, and administrative operations of the 561-acre cemetery.
Henshaw replaces Cynthia Nunez who retired on January 2, 2017 after more than thirty years with the National Cemetery Administration. As only the cemetery’s third Director since its dedication in April 2007, Mr. Henshaw will oversee the care and maintenance of over 24,000 grave sites and nearly 4,000 burials each year.
After graduating the National Cemetery Administration’s year-long Cemetery Director Intern Course in 2013, he has held assignments as the Director of Camp Butler National Cemetery in Illinois, Dayton National Cemetery in Ohio, and Chattanooga National Cemetery in Tennessee. He was also assigned to the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) Office of Field Programs in Washington, D.C. as a Program Analyst from July 2015 until March, 2016.
Before joining the Department of Veterans Affairs, he served as the Operations Officer for the Joint Mortuary Affairs Center at Ft. Lee, VA, where he deployed to Haiti as the DOD liaison to the Departments of State and Health and Human Services, where he led the search, recovery, identification and repatriation effort for all American citizens killed during the January 2010 earthquake. He subsequently served as the Emergency Management Officer for the Navy in Naples, Italy.
Mr. Henshaw retired from the U.S. Army in 2009 after 25 years of service, where he served as a mortuary affairs non-commissioned officer in charge of missing in action (MIA) search and recovery teams responsible for locating, recovering and repatriating the remains of U.S. Service Members missing overseas from World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War. He also served as the operations officer for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command detachments in Vientiane, Laos and Hanoi, Vietnam, and as the logistics advisor and senior team sergeant in the Chosin Reservoir area in North Korea.
Mr. Henshaw led one of only two U.S. forensics teams deployed to recover and identify the remains of all American citizens killed during the 2004 South Asia Tsunami. He is a Veteran of both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Desert Storm. His last combat assignment was 2007-2008 as a military advisor on a specialized 11-man team embedded with an Iraqi Army Infantry Battalion at Combat Outpost Scorpion in Mosul Iraq.
Mr. Henshaw was awarded two Bronze Star Medals for combat operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His other awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, the Air Assault Badge, Combat Action Badge and numerous awards and campaign medals.
Sacramento Valley National Cemetery has over 28,000 burials since the interment of its first Veteran, a World War II Marine veteran who sold the land to the VA for the cemetery.
For more information about Sacramento Valley National Cemetery, please contact the cemetery at 707-693-2460.