Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service

Casey Cep explores the exceptional work of the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) and its leader, Ronald E. Walters. Cep begins with the story of Staff Sergeant Robert Ferris Jr., a ball turret gunner whose B-17 bomber was shot down near Normandy in 1942. For eight decades, Ferris remained an unidentified soldier buried in France until modern forensic techniques allowed his remains to be identified and returned to the US. His 2024 burial with full military honors in New Bern, North Carolina, serves as an entry point for examining the NCA’s mission and operations.

The NCA, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, maintains 155 national cemeteries across the US, burying more than 140,000 veterans and family members annually while tending to the graves of nearly 4 million others. Cep highlights that the NCA has achieved the highest rating of any organization, public or private, in the American Customer Satisfaction Index for seven consecutive assessments, scoring an unprecedented 97 out of 100. This rating far exceeds other federal agencies (which average 68) and even outperforms highly regarded private companies like Costco (85) and Apple (83).

Ronald Walters emerges as the central figure responsible for this excellence. A career

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