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>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> November 8, 2007
>
> **VA To Expand Florida National Cemetery**
>
> WASHINGTON -- To ensure veterans in central Florida continue to have
> access to a final resting place honoring their military service, the
> Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded a \$20.2 million
> contract to expand the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
>
> "Expanding this cemetery ensures Florida veterans will continue to
> receive the
>
> benefits they earned," said Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs
> Gordon H. Mansfield. "We are keeping our commitment to maintain this
> national shrine for many years to come as a lasting tribute to the men
> and women who served our nation." 
>
> QGS Development Inc., of Lithia, Fla., was awarded \$20.2 million to
> build additional burial sections and infrastructure at the VA
> cemetery.
>
> The project encompasses nearly 70 acres, which will provide
> approximately 41,000 additional gravesites. These will include 20,000
> pre-placed crypts for caskets, 4,000 other casket gravesites, 9,000
> in-ground cremation sites and 8,000 columbaria niches for cremation
> remains.
>
> The project will also include two new committal service shelters, a
> public restroom, a storage facility and other improvements.
> Construction is expected to be finished by late 2009. After expansion,
> burials for veterans and eligible family members are expected to
> continue at Florida National Cemetery until about 2020.
>
> Florida's other national cemeteries are Barrancas in Pensacola, South
> Florida VA in Lake Worth, St. Augustine and Bay Pines.  The Barrancas
> National Cemetery and South Florida VA National Cemetery have space
> available for casketed and cremated remains.  
>
> **- More -**
>
> **Florida National Cemetery Expansion 2/2/2**
>
> Bay Pines has space available for cremated remains and can accommodate
> casketed remains in the gravesites of previously interred family
> members.  St. Augustine is closed to new interments, but can bury
> family members in existing gravesites.
>
> In addition to these national cemeteries, VA is planning two more
> national cemeteries, in the Jacksonville and Sarasota areas.
>
> In the midst of the largest cemetery expansion since the Civil War, VA
> operates 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and 33
> soldiers\' lots and monument sites. More than three million Americans,
> including veterans of every war and conflict --- from the
> Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terror --- are buried in VA's
> national cemeteries.
>
> Veterans with a discharge other than dishonorable, their spouses and
> eligible dependent children can be buried in a national cemetery.
> Other burial benefits available for veterans, regardless of whether
> buried in a national cemetery or a private cemetery, include a burial
> flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a government headstone
> or marker.
>
> Information on VA's burial benefits can be obtained from national
> cemetery offices, from the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by
> calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.
>
> For information on the Florida National Cemetery, call the cemetery
> office at
>
> \(352\) 793-7740.
>
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