WASHINGTON – To help ensure that South Carolina veterans have a final resting place that honors their service, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today awarded a grant of more than $5 million to the state to establish a new veterans cemetery in Anderson.

"By partnering with state veterans cemeteries, the Department of Veterans Affairs is able to honor our commitment to the men and women who have served in uniform," said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. "This partnership provides a final resting place for South Carolina veterans that meets the high standards of a national shrine." 

At a ceremony in Columbia, William F. Tuerk, VA Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, presented a symbolic check for $5,183,850 to Gov. Mark Sanford covering the cost of the facility.

The grant will pay 100 percent of the cost to build the 57-acre cemetery in the western part of the state.  In its initial development of 22 acres, the cemetery will provide more than 6,800 casket gravesites, 740 cremation burial sites and 800 columbarium niches for cremated remains.  The grant also provides cemetery infrastructure, including roads, administration and maintenance buildings, an assembly area and a committal service shelter.  Design costs and equipment to operate the cemetery also are funded.

VA's State Cemetery Grants Program complements VA’s 122 national cemeteries.  The grants have helped to establish, expand or improve 68 state veterans cemeteries in 36 states and Guam that provided more than 20,000 burials in fiscal year 2005.   Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 149 grants totaling $245 million. 

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 (800) 827-1000.

Information about the South Carolina veterans cemetery can be obtained from the Governor's Office of Veterans Affairs at (803) 734-0200.

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Email me at  larry@vawatchdog.org

Larry Scott