WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected Gerald Vitela as the first director of the new Pittsburgh area national cemetery.
The new cemetery is located 15 miles southwest of Pittsburgh in Washington County, Pa. When it becomes operational in late 2004, it will provide burials to nearly 329,000 veterans and their families who live within 75 miles of the site.
Before assuming this new position, Vitela was the director at the Fort Logan, Colo., and Fort Bliss, Texas, national cemeteries. He also served in national cemeteries at Marion, Ind.; Golden Gate, Calif.; Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Fort Scott, Kan. Vitela joined VA’s National Cemetery Administration in 1977, serving in a variety of positions at JeffersonBarracksNationalCemetery in St. Louis before being selected for the cemetery director training program in 1984.
Vitela is an Air Force veteran who was stationed in Italy, California and Nebraska. He received the Air Force Commendation Medal and other awards for aiding Italian communities after a devastating earthquake.
When completed, the cemetery’s 80-acre initial construction phase will contain 15,000 gravesites, plus a 3,000-unit columbarium and 1,000 sites for in-ground cremated remains. The new cemetery will also include an administration and maintenance complex, two committal service shelters, a public information center with electronic gravesite locator and public restrooms, a cemetery entrance area, a flag assembly area, a memorial walkway and donations area and infrastructure elements including roadways, landscaping, utilities and irrigation.
Construction is expected to begin this summer and burials later in the year in a small section during construction. The cemetery staff will conduct initial operations from a temporary office, committal service shelter and equipment shed until construction is completed in early 2007.
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.
VA, now in the midst of its largest expansion since the Civil War, operates 120 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, 33 soldiers' lots as well as monument sites. More than 2.5 million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict — from the Revolutionary War to the current war in Iraq — are buried in VA’s national cemeteries.
More than 14,200 acres of land are in these national cemeteries. VA also provides grants to states to build new or expand existing state veterans cemeteries to complement national cemeteries. Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the VA Web site on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.
Information about the Pittsburgh area national cemetery is available by calling the VA Memorial Service Network in Philadelphia at 215-381-3787.
