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Rio Grande Valley State Veterans Cemetery Dedicated

November 3, 2006

WASHINGTON (November 3, 2006A) --Helping to ensure that south Texas veterans and their families have access to burial in a veterans cemetery, the Rio Grande Valley State Veterans Cemetery was dedicated in Mission in a ceremony today.

"It is an honor for the Department of Veterans Affairs to partner with the people of Texas to build this shrine for our veterans," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. "This new state cemetery will stand as a tribute to the men and women of Texas who have honorably served our nation."

Nicholson was represented at the dedication by William F. Tuerk, Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The 75-acre site in Hidalgo County, about 230 miles south of San Antonio, will be administered by the Texas Veterans Land Board. Nearly 45,000 veterans live within the service radius of the cemetery.

VA provided an $8.7 million grant to build the new cemetery. Burials will begin in December in a 31-acre section.

A committal shelter, administration building, maintenance building, assembly area and columbarium for cremated remains also will be developed in the first phase of construction. The project will provide a total of 2,430 traditional in-ground gravesites, 1,260 in-ground cremation gravesites, 2,000 pre-placed crypts and 500 columbarium niches.

VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program complements VA’s national cemeteries. VA state cemetery grants have helped establish, expand or improve 71 state veterans cemeteries in 35 states, Saipan and Guam. State veterans cemeteries provided more than 22,000 burials in 2006. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 152 grants totaling more than $274 million.

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Larry Scott

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