Secretary Shinseki Announces $7.2 Million Grant to Virginia

Commonwealth to Build Third State Veterans Cemetery

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Eric K. Shinseki has announced Veterans living in southwestern Virginia will
soon have a final resting place that honors their service to the nation. The
Department of Veterans Affairs awarded $7,218,366 to the Commonwealth of
Virginia to establish the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin.

"VA and the Virginia Department of Veterans Services have a strong partnership
and work together to provide Veterans the benefits they have earned,"
Secretary Shinseki said. "This new state cemetery will forever commemorate
their service and sacrifice."

The grant funds the first phase of construction on approximately 24 acres.
The cemetery was created after the transfer of an 80-acre parcel from the
Radford Army Ammunition Plant to Virginia last year.

Construction plans include full-casket and cremation burial areas, columbaria
for cremation remains, a memorial garden and scattering site, an assembly
area, a committal service shelter, a maintenance building, roads, landscaping
and supporting infrastructure. Burial areas will include 5,167 standard
burial plots; 2,750 pre-placed crypts; 500 in-ground cremains and 625
columbarium niches.

The cemetery will serve 60,000 Veterans and their families in southwestern
Virginia. The nearest national cemetery is Mountain Home National Cemetery in
Mountain Home near Johnson City, Tenn., approximately 134 miles away. The
nearest state cemetery is Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia, approximately
178 miles away.

Virginia has one other state veterans cemetery, the Albert G. Horton Jr.
Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk.

VA's State Cemetery Grants Program is designed to complement the department's
130 national cemeteries across the country. Since 1980, the program has
awarded grants totaling more than $389 million to establish, expand or improve
74 Veterans cemeteries in 38 states or territories, including Guam and Saipan.
VA-funded state Veterans cemeteries provided nearly 25,000 burials in 2008.

Residents of Virginia who are Veterans with a discharge issued under
conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent
children can be buried in the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery. For more
information about Virginia state Veterans cemeteries contact the Virginia
Department of Veterans Services by phone at 804-561-1475 or visit its Web site
at www.dvs.virginia.gov/cemetery_services.htm.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery
offices, by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000 or from the
Internet at www.cem.va.gov.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-461-7600