WASHINGTON — The suppliers of grave-site headstones are on alert. Directors of the national cemeteries have been told to go out of their way to accommodate the wishes of next of kin, even if that means providing for rare weekend burials. "Casualty assistance counselors" are on standby to process life insurance and disability claims. Eighty hospitals are preparing to receive the wounded, perhaps directly from the killing fields.

With little notice, the Department of Veterans Affairs is grimly preparing for the decidedly unglamorous, heart-rending side of the Persian Gulf War.

"This probably is the biggest challenge for the VA since World War II," said Edward J. Derwinski, secretary of veterans affairs. "Quite frankly, in the first month or two (after the U.S. deployment of troops to the Middle East) there was a lot of dust and sloppiness in the system. But now we're ready."

Once widely regarded as a bloated, mismanaged agency second in size only to the Pentagon, the VA is now a full-fledged Cabinet department bent on acquiring a new image. And it suddenly finds itself under enormous pressures.

"The challenge before us is enormous," Derwinski said in an interview. "But we are prepared to meet head-on the awesome challenge presented by Desert Storm."

However, others are not so sanguine. There are those who fear that the 250,000-employee department will not live up to the task should the casualties begin coming home in vast numbers after a bloody ground war against Iraq begins.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, for instance, this week sent its own inspectors around the country to verify the VA's claim that its hospitals and medical personnel are ready to receive more than 9,000 wounded American fighting men and women within 24-hours notice and up to 25,000 GIs with three-days notice. Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has put the estimated number of U.S. casualties at 10,000 to 20,000 if a ground war breaks out.

"I hope the VA is ready, but I've got some serious concerns," said Larry W. Rivers, a Vietnam veteran who now heads the 2.2 million-member VFW.

Whether the department, which acquired Cabinet status in March, 1989, can meet the challenge may well shape the department's public image for years to come--and perhaps affect its ability to serve the 27 million veterans throughout the nation.