WASHINGTON -- Three communities -- Sarasota County, Fla., Birmingham, Ala., and Greenville/Columbia, S.C. -- have the greatest need for burial space for veterans, according to a study conducted for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
"We must ensure that VA continues to meet its obligation to provide America’s veterans with a dignified and respectful final resting place,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. “Now and in the future, this study will serve as a valuable planning tool for decisions on where and when to build new cemeteries."
Principi sent a report on the study, Future Burial Needs, to members of Congress. In response to the report, VA will plan to develop new national cemeteries in the Sarasota, Birmingham and Greenville/Columbia areas. New national cemeteries already are planned and expected to open by 2005 in Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Fla., Pittsburgh, Detroit and Sacramento, Calif.
During the next two decades, VA faces the challenge of providing burial space for a rapidly aging veteran population. Veteran deaths, estimated this year at 674,000, are expected to peak at about 687,000 in 2006 and then decrease slightly each year to about 545,000 in 2020. The study was done to assess how VA can meet demands for veterans cemetery burial options up to 2020.
The report pinpoints those areas of the country with the largest number of veterans without access to either a national or state veterans cemetery within 75 miles of their homes.
A future cemetery in Sarasota County would ensure continued burials when VA's Bay Pines National Cemetery -- which has no room to expand -- closes in about 2016. Veterans residing in the Birmingham and Greenville/Columbia areas currently do not have access to a nearby veterans cemetery. All three areas have veteran populations exceeding 170,000, which is the threshold VA has established for planning future national cemeteries.
Principi said VA will address the needs of other locations identified in the report by expanding current cemeteries and working with states to develop state veterans cemeteries through the State Cemetery Grants Program. Through the grant program, VA may fund 100 percent of the construction and initial equipment costs for a new cemetery to be operated and maintained by the state. VA has provided grant funding to 48 operational state veterans cemeteries.
VA currently manages 120 national cemeteries in the United States and Puerto Rico, half of which date to the Civil War. Fort Sill, Okla., National Cemetery, newest in the system, began providing burials for veterans and their eligible family members in November 2001.
The report is the second in a series on improving VA’s national cemeteries required by Public Law 106-117, Section 613, passed by Congress in 1999. The first report, Cemetery Standards of Appearance, was released in March 2002 and the last one, National Shrine Commitment--Facility Condition Assessment, is slated for release later this year. VA contracted with the firm Logistics Management Institute, of McLean, Va., to conduct the studies.
