WASHINGTON – Veterans in the SacramentoValley now can have a final resting place that honors their service to the nation as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) began burials today at the SacramentoValleyNationalCemetery, the 124th VA-managed national cemetery.
“This new national cemetery will honor the men and women of California who have served our nation,” said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “It is tangible proof of our commitment to America’s military by providing a final resting place and a lasting tribute to these heroes and their families.”
An official dedication ceremony for the facility is being planned in the spring. The public will be invited to attend this event.
The 561-acre site is located in SolanoCounty, approximately 27 miles southwest of Sacramento along Interstate 80, between Dixon and Vacaville. Nearly 346,000 veterans live within the cemetery’s service area.
Burials began in an area of approximately 14 acres, which includes one committal shelter and three burial sections. These initial sections have the capacity for a total of 4,712 gravesites and 3,754 in-ground cremation gravesites.
Although the cemetery has opened for burials, construction will continue at the cemetery until July 2009. The complete 55-acre initial construction project will provide 14,905 full-casket gravesites, an 8,000-unit columbarium for cremated remains and 5,207 sites for in-ground cremated remains.
The plan also includes the construction of two more committal shelters, a public information center with electronic gravesite locator and public restrooms, cemetery entrance area, flag assembly area, memorial walkway, and infrastructure elements, including roadways, landscaping, utilities and irrigation.
Veterans with a discharge other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in a national cemetery. Other burial benefits 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 124 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and 33 soldiers' lots and monument sites. More than three 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 on more than 16,000 acres of land.
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.
For information on the Sacramento Valley VA National Cemetery, call the cemetery office at (707) 693-2460.
