Commonwealth to Build Third State Veterans Cemetery
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced that Veterans living in southwestern Virginia will soon have a final resting place that honors their service to the nation. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded $7,218,366 to the Commonwealth of Virginia to establish the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin.
“VA and the Virginia Department of Veterans Services have a strong partnership and work together to provide Veterans the benefits they have earned,” Secretary Shinseki said. “This new state cemetery will forever commemorate their service and sacrifice.”
The grant funds the first phase of construction on approximately 24 acres. The cemetery was created after the transfer of an 80-acre parcel from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant to Virginia last year.
Construction plans include full-casket and cremation burial areas, columbaria for cremation remains, a memorial garden and scattering site, an assembly area, a committal service shelter, a maintenance building, roads, landscaping and supporting infrastructure. Burial areas will include 5,167 standard burial plots, 2,750 pre-placed crypts, 500 in-ground cremains and 625 columbarium niches.
The cemetery will provide burials for 60,000 Veterans and their families in Virginia. The nearest national cemetery is VA’s Mountain Home National Cemetery near Johnson City, Tenn., approximately 134 miles away. The nearest state cemetery is Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia, approximately 178 miles away.
Virginia has one other state veterans cemetery, the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk.
VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program is designed to complement the department’s 130 national cemeteries across the country. Since 1980, the program has awarded grants totaling more than $368 million to establish, expand or improve 74 Veterans cemeteries in 38 states or territories, including Guam and Saipan. VA-funded state Veterans cemeteries provided nearly 25,000 burials in 2008.
Residents of Virginia who are Veterans with a discharge issued under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery. For more information about Virginia state Veterans cemeteries contact the Virginia Department of Veterans Services by phone at 804-561-1475 or visit its Web site at www.dvs.virginia.gov/cemetery_services.htm.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000 or from the Internet at www.cem.va.gov.
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