WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has named the national cemetery to be constructed in Jacksonville, Fla., as the “Jacksonville VA National Cemetery.”
“The veterans of northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia deserve a final resting place worthy of their service to our nation,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “Our newest national cemetery in Florida will be a national shrine honoring them.”
The new cemetery is in the city of Jacksonville, north of the JacksonvilleInternationalAirport and approximately five miles from Interstate 295 on 569 acres acquired from the city. The cemetery will serve 189,000 veterans in the region who are not currently provided burial space by a nearby national or state veterans cemetery.
VA selected Arleen Vincenty as the first director of the new national cemetery. She begins her duties immediately.
Vincenty had been the director of the Puerto RicoNationalCemetery since November 2006. She was cemetery director at the NatchezNationalCemetery in Mississippi, the FayettevilleNationalCemetery in Arkansas and the Salisbury National Cemetery Complex in North Carolina.
VA anticipates construction of the first phase of development to begin this summer. VA has awarded a $1.25 million contract to the firm of England, Thims & Miller of Jacksonville to design the master plan for the project. Initial construction will prepare a small burial area to ensure that veteran burials can take place before all phase one facilities are completed.
In addition to burial areas, phase one will consist of approximately 50 acres, including roadways, an entrance area, an administration and public information center, a maintenance complex with buildings, a maintenance yard and parking, a flag assembly area, a memorial walkway and committal service shelters. Other infrastructure improvements will include grading, drainage, fencing, planting, an irrigation system and utilities.
Interment areas will include traditional full-casket gravesites, pre-placed crypts, in-ground cremated burial sites and a columbarium for cremated remains.
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 Jacksonville VA National Cemetery is available by calling the cemetery director at (904) 358-3510.
