Whitehead Selected First Director
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has named the national cemetery to be built near Birmingham the “Alabama VA National Cemetery.”
“For the hundreds of thousands of men and women in Alabama who have worn our country’s uniforms, this national cemetery will be a fitting tribute to their service and sacrifices,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
The new national cemetery will be located in the town of Montevallo, approximately five miles west of Interstate 65 and adjacent to American Village, a museum that teaches history and citizenship through re-creation of colonial life. The cemetery will be built on land acquired from private owners and will serve approximately 200,000 veterans in the region who are not currently provided burial space by a nearby national or state veterans cemetery.
VA selected Quincy Whitehead as the first director of the new cemetery. She will begin her duties immediately. Before this appointment, she had been director of Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola, Fla., since 2005.
She has also served at national cemeteries in Leavenworth, Kan.; Quantico, Va.; and Milwaukee. She is an Army veteran who also served in the Army Reserve and the Naval Reserve.
VA expects to begin construction of the first phase of the cemetery this summer. In September 2007, the Department awarded a $1.3 million contract to Civil Consultants Inc. of Birmingham to design the cemetery.
When complete, the first phase will consist of approximately 45 acres, and facilities needed to provide burials for approximately 10 years. The first-phase interment areas will provide 9,100 full-casket gravesites, 3,100 in-ground cremation sites and approximately 2,700 columbarium niches for cremation remains.
The cemetery will also include an administrative and public information center, an electronic gravesite locator and public restrooms, a maintenance facility, an entrance area, a flag assembly area, a memorial walkway and two committal shelters for funeral services. Infrastructure will include roadways, landscaping, utilities and irrigation.
Veterans with a discharge other than dishonorable, their spouses, and dependent children are eligible for burial in a national cemetery. Other burial benefits for eligible veterans include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a government headstone or marker – even if they are not buried in a national cemetery.
In the midst of the largest cemetery expansion since the Civil War, VA operates 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, 33 soldiers’ lots and monument sites. More than 3.4 million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict — from the Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terror — are buried in VA’s national cemeteries.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.
Information about the new national cemetery is available by calling the cemetery at (205) 665-9039 or toll-free at 1-866-547-5078.
# # #
###
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.
Veterans can also use our chatbot to get information about VA benefits and services. The chatbot won’t connect you with a person, but it can show you where to go on VA.gov to find answers to some common questions.
Subscribe today to receive these news releases in your inbox.
