WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dedicated its newest national cemetery in Bucks County, Pa., on Sunday.
“A new national shrine that will honor the veterans of Pennsylvania becomes a reality today with the dedication of this cemetery site,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. “VA holds sacred our mission to provide veterans a beautiful final resting place and lasting tribute to the men and women who have defended our nation.”
VA’s Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, William F. Tuerk, gave the keynote address and was joined by local officials as the dedication plaque was unveiled and ground was ceremonially broken.
The new 205-acre national cemetery will serve veterans for decades. More than 580,000 veterans live in the region. IndiantownGapNationalCemetery, the nearest open national cemetery in Pennsylvania, is 120 miles from the new site.
The first phase of construction, including an early burial area, is planned to begin early next year. Burials are expected to begin in the fall of 2009. When completed, the 64-acre first-phase development will provide 15,500 full-casket gravesites, including 15,100 pre-placed crypts, 6,500 in-ground cremation sites and 4,100 columbarium niches.
The new cemetery will also include an administration and public information center complex with an electronic gravesite locator and public restrooms, a maintenance facility, a cemetery entrance area, a flag assembly area, a memorial walkway and committal shelters for funeral services. Other infrastructure includes roadways, landscaping, utilities and irrigation.
Veterans with a discharge under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children may be buried in a national cemetery. Other burial benefits available for all eligible veterans, regardless of whether they are buried in a national cemetery or a private cemetery, include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a government headstone or marker.
In the midst of the largest expansion since the Civil War, VA operates 125 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, are buried in VA’s national cemeteries on more than 17,000 acres of land.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at (800) 827-1000.
Information about the WashingtonCrossingNationalCemetery is available by calling the VA Memorial Service Network in Philadelphia at (215) 381-3787. To make burial arrangements at the time of need, call the national cemetery scheduling office at (800) 535-1117.
