WASHINGTON – Ensuring that Georgia veterans have a final resting place that honors their service to the nation, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today the award of a $6.4 million grant to establish the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Glennville, Ga.
“Veterans have earned the right to burial in veterans cemeteries that are truly national shrines,” said the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “State veterans cemeteries complement VA national cemeteries by making memorial benefits available to more veterans.”
During a ceremony in Atlanta, Richard A. Wannemacher, Jr., VA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, presented a symbolic check for $6,432,900 to Governor Sonny Perdue covering the cost of the cemetery.
The grant will pay for the costs to build the 43-acre cemetery in the southeastern part of the state. In its initial 24-acre development, the cemetery will provide nearly 2,000 casket gravesites, 360 in-ground cremation burial sites, 512 columbarium niches and a scattering garden for cremated remains.
The grant also will cover the costs of cemetery infrastructure, including administration and maintenance buildings, roads, utilities, an assembly area and a committal service shelter. Design costs and equipment to operate the cemetery are also funded.
Georgia’s first state veterans cemetery, which opened in November 2001 in Milledgeville, was also funded through VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program. VA opened the 123rd national cemetery, Georgia National Cemetery, in April on a 775-acre site 40 miles north of Atlanta.
VA state cemetery grants have helped establish, expand or improve 71 State veterans cemeteries in 35 states, Saipan and Guam. State veterans cemeteries provided more than 20,000 burials in 2005. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 152 grants totaling more than $274 million.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the VA Web site on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.
Information about Georgia veterans cemeteries can be obtained from the Georgia Department of Veterans Service at http://www.sdvs.georgia.gov or
404-656-5933.
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Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov
Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.
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