VA Breaks Ground at New Michigan Cemetery
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    Marine Free Member CAS3's Avatar
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    VA Breaks Ground at New Michigan Cemetery

    VA Breaks Ground at New Michigan Cemetery
    WASHINGTON (October 14, 2004) -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs
    Anthony J. Principi today presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the
    new Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Mich.

    "This landmark event signifies the beginning of a new era of service
    to meet the burial needs of veterans in southeastern Michigan," said
    Principi. "Soon, veterans and their dependents in the Detroit area and
    beyond will have a national cemetery that reflects the honor their sacrifice
    justly deserves."

    National, state and local officials, veterans service organizations,
    and area veterans and their families attended the ceremony. In addition to
    Principi, other speakers included Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Debbie
    Stabenow and Representatives Joe Knollenberg, Dale Kildee, and Mike Rogers.


    Great Lakes National Cemetery is in Oakland County, approximately 45
    miles northwest of Detroit. When the cemetery becomes operational in
    mid-2005, it will serve nearly 460,000 veterans and their families who live
    within 75 miles of the site.

    When completed, the cemetery's 50-acre initial construction phase
    will contain 6,500 full-casket gravesites, consisting of 5,200 pre-placed
    crypts and 1,300 traditional full-casket gravesites, plus a 1,700-unit
    columbarium and 1,500 sites for in-ground cremated remains.

    The new cemetery will also include an administration and maintenance
    complex, two committal service shelters, public information center with
    electronic gravesite locator and public restrooms, cemetery entrance area,
    flag assembly area, memorial walkway and donations area, and infrastructure
    elements including roadways, landscaping, utilities and irrigation.


    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, in the midst of its largest land expansion since the Civil War,
    operates 120 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, 33 soldiers'
    lots and monument sites. VA's national cemeteries have more than 14,200
    acres of land. 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.

    VA also provides grants to states through its State Cemetery Grants
    Program to build new or expand existing state cemeteries that 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 <http://www.cem.va.gov/> or by calling VA regional
    offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000. Information about the Great Lakes
    National Cemetery is available at 810-695-2007.
    # # #


  2. #2
    Registered User Free Member Doc Crow's Avatar
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    Yea the Cemeteries are filling up real fast. The Greates Generation is leaving us so rapidly


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