WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi recently approved the award of a $6.5-million grant to Virginia to establish the Albert G. Horton, Jr. Memorial Veterans’ Cemetery at Suffolk. The cemetery will serve the large veterans population in the Hampton Roads area.
"This award, like an increasing number of grants for state veterans' cemeteries, recognizes the contribution of America's aging veterans," said Principi. "I appreciate President Bush's leadership in supporting state veterans' cemeteries."
The project will be developed on 27 acres of a 73-acre site. The rest of the site will be developed in later stages. The initial phase of the cemetery project will provide more than 12,700 burial spaces and comprise an entrance gate, assembly area, administration and maintenance building, committal shelter, and associated road, grading and drainage work.
Burial space will include more than 8,700 gravesites for casket burials, 2,100 gravesites for in-ground burial of cremated remains and more than 1,900 niches for inurnment in a columbarium. The grant will also pay for the equipment needed to operate the cemetery and for planning and design expenses.
The nearest open national cemetery is Quantico National Cemetery in Triangle, Va., approximately 160 miles north. The state also operates the Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia, west of Richmond. VA’s Hampton National Cemetery served the Hampton Roads area from the Civil War to 1993 when it exhausted its supply of available gravesites.
As a complement to VA’s system of national cemeteries, the State Cemetery Grants Program has helped establish, expand or improve 52 operational state veterans cemeteries. Six additional cemeteries are under construction. The state veterans cemeteries provided 17,177 burials in fiscal year 2002. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 130 grants for more than $171 million to 30 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 Albert G. Horton, Jr. Memorial Veterans’ Cemetery will be open to state residents. Details may be obtained by calling the Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs at (540) 857-7104.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from VA Web sites on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov/, or by calling VA regional offices toll-free on 1-800-827-1000.
