RH HQ Press Release (October 3, 2013) – You know that the disagreement in Washington is costing you money, but what if it was costing you your business? Well that appears to be the case for Remember Heroes, an organization founded by a former marine to honor fallen U.S. service members. The company planned to launch its service of decorating veteran’s graves with fresh flowers on October 1st. However, on that same day the national government shut down for the first time in 17 years.

With the “shutdown”, the government literally shut down the servers that hold all the military grave data that Remember Heroes uses on a daily basis. “It actually costs more to shut down the data servers in Washington than to just leave them on,” said Flint Holbrook, the company’s chief technology officer. Remember Heroes depends on several different government website databases to provide all the information they need to find where veterans are buried in national cemeteries.

Remember Heroes planned to launch at ten national cemeteries on October 1st. The service places fresh flowers on veteran’s graves and returns a virtual tour of the decorated site to the family and friends of the service member. The virtual tour can be shared with loved ones who can upload their own content to create an online memorial wall.

Data.gov will be inaccessible until the current administration can pass a budget to fund the federal government. The government shutdown appears to be costing not just federal employees their jobs, but also everyday American citizens their jobs as well. As a new company, Remember Heroes is at a critical point in its growth, yet consequences like these likely aren’t considered when our politicians refuse to compromise.

Remember Heroes was planning to initially serve the families and friends of more than 1.7 million deceased veterans in national cemeteries located in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX; Riverside, CA; Honolulu, HI; Denver, CO; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; St. Louis, MO; Long Island, NY; Arlington, VA/Washington, D.C.; Bushnell, FL and San Antonio, TX.

(AP Photo)