Michael Henshaw was named director of Chattanooga National Cemetery. He is responsible for all administrative, burial and maintenance operations at Chattanooga, Nashville and Knoxville National Cemeteries.
He was previously assigned to the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) Office of Field Programs in Washington, D.C., from July 2015, as director of Dayton National Cemetery from February 2014 and director of Camp Butler National Cemetery from August 2013. He completed the NCA comprehensive, year-long Cemetery Director Intern Program in in St. Louis, Missouri in July 2013.
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, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, the Air Assault Badge, Combat Action Badge and numerous other awards and campaign medals.