Secretary Announces $1.8 Million to Delaware Cemetery

Secretary Shinseki Announces Award of $1.8 Million to Delaware

Grant Will Expand the State Veterans Cemetery in Sussex

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki has announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is awarding $1.8 million to the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sussex to expand its facility.

“This vital federal-state partnership will honor our nation’s commitment to Delaware’s Veterans,” said Secretary Shinseki.

The grant to the state-run facility will fund the construction of a columbarium, pre-placed crypts and full-casket burial sites.  The project will include 400 standard burial plots, 1,140 pre-placed crypts, 200 in-ground cremains, and 1,280 columbarium niches.

The nearest national cemetery is VA’s Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pa., nearly 200 miles away.  The nearest state Veterans cemetery is the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in New Castle County, approximately 80 miles away.

VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program is designed to complement VA’s 130 national cemeteries across the country.  Since 1980, the program has awarded grants totaling more than $350 million to establish, expand or improve 74 Veterans cemeteries in 38 states or territories including Guam and Saipan.  These state cemeteries provided nearly 25,000 burials in 2008.

Residents of Delaware who are Veterans with an honorable discharge from active duty, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sussex and the New Castle County Cemetery.

For more information about the Delaware state Veterans cemeteries, visit the Web site at http://veteransaffairs.delaware.gov/dvmc.shtml or call (302) 739-2792.

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