WASHINGTON — Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi today announced the award of a $5.6-million grant to Kentucky to establish the Western Kentucky Veterans Cemetery in Hopkinsville. Hopkinsville is adjacent to Ft. Campbell, the home of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division. Veterans living in Tennessee will also be eligible for burial in this cemetery.
“This award, and an increasing number like it for state veterans’ cemeteries, recognize the contribution of America’s aging veterans,” said Principi. “I appreciate President Bush’s leadership in supporting state veterans’ cemeteries.”
The grant will pay for developing 50 acres of the 73-acre site. The cemetery will serve approximately 34,000 veterans who live within 75 miles and currently are not served by a veterans cemetery with space for casketed burials. The nearest open VA national cemetery is in Lebanon, Ky., 120 miles away.
When completed, the cemetery will include 11,861 casket gravesites, 463 in-ground cremation sites and 768 columbarium niches for cremation burials — a total of 15,500 burial sites in the facility’s first phase — plus an administration and maintenance building and a committal service shelter. The project will also provide 408 pre-placed graveliners, or crypts.
As a complement to VA’s system of national cemeteries, the state cemetery grants program has helped establish, expand or improve 49 operational state veterans cemeteries. Six additional cemeteries are under construction. The state veterans cemeteries provided 15,409 burials in fiscal year 2001. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 121 grants for more than $146 million to 29 states, plus Guam.
Information about the grants program is available by contacting VA’s State Cemetery Grants Service at (202) 565-6801. Eligibility for burial in the Kentucky State Veterans Cemetery is open to all veterans on the same basis as eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from VA web sites on the Internet at http://www.va.gov or http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free on 1-800-827-1000.
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