Since beginning in 1978, the Veterans Cemetery Grant Program has provided more than 480 grants to 122 state, territorial, and Tribal Veterans cemeteries — leading to over 800,000 total interments for Veterans. In fiscal year 2022, these cemeteries and VA national cemeteries conducted nearly 200,000 interments combined.

Veterans interred in state, territorial, or Tribal Veterans cemeteries receive the same burial and memorial benefits provided to Veterans in VA national cemeteries, at no cost. This includes a gravesite, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care, a government headstone or marker, a burial flag, and a Presidential Memorial Certificate.

“NCA’s Veterans Cemetery Grants Program is critical in our effort to provide burial options to Veterans and their families closer to where they live,” said Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Matt Quinn. “These grants and the enduring partnerships they create with states, tribes, and territories recognize the sacrifices made by Veterans and our nation’s obligation to honor them for their service.”

The cemeteries receiving grants are:

• $8,391,524 for the establishment of Nebraska Veterans Cemetery at Grand Island. The cemetery will serve more than 13,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
•  $15,902,647 for the establishment of West Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Lubbock. The cemetery will serve more than 21,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $6,484,476 for the expansion and improvement of Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Corpus Christi. The cemetery serves more than 42,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $1,869,062 for the expansion and improvement of Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in Birdeye. The cemetery serves more than 108,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $1,810,957 for the expansion and improvement of Northeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Rayville. The cemetery serves more than 33,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $3,808,915 for the expansion and improvement of Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Slidell. The cemetery serves more than 162,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $3,951,421 for the expansion and improvement of Finger Lakes State Veterans Cemetery in Romulus, NY. The cemetery serves more than 13,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $1,910,246 for the expansion of Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Camp Navajo in Bellemont. The cemetery serves more than 31,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.
• $7,130,469 for the expansion of Albert G. Horton, Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk, VA. The cemetery serves more than 325,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.

Between grant-funded cemeteries and VA’s national cemeteries, the department is now providing 94% of Veterans who live in the U.S. with the option of burial in a VA or VA-funded cemetery within 75 miles of their homes.

Veterans interred in most VA-grant funded cemeteries are also memorialized on the Veterans Legacy Memorial site. This allows family, friends and others to preserve their Veteran’s legacy by posting tributes, uploading images, and sharing their Veteran’s achievements, biographical information and historical documents.

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“These grants help ensure future generations of Americans will appreciate the legacies of Veterans who have given so much for this nation,” said Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Matt Quinn. “This marks the second year the Veterans Legacy Program  has provided funding that empowers recipients to research and memorialize Veterans, teach students about Veterans, and develop innovative ways of telling Veterans’ stories.”

The following grantees were selected following a rigorous review process from 18 organizations who applied for grants through a Notice of Funding Availability published March 2023.

• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI), grant of $498,714.96.
  The new project, titled World War II: Portraits of Service, will include the creation of five lesson plans, teacher professional development, and a traveling exhibit all centered around members of the greatest generation whose stories have remained untold. A Portraits of Service award will be given to 10 students whose work excels in honoring these Veterans.
• Loyola Marymount University (LMU), grant of $370,000.
  The LMU Digital Veterans Legacy Project will continue its efforts to research and document the lives of Veterans interred in Los Angeles National Cemetery. LMU will work closely with local high schools and community and Veterans’ groups. The project will focus on identifying and telling the stories of Buffalo Soldiers and Asian-American Veterans interred within the cemetery. LMU’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps detachment will collaborate with the high school and undergraduate students as well.
• Ball State University (BSU), grant of $337,464.
  BSU’s project will highlight the significant contributions of Indiana natives who served in the 28th U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), Indiana’s only African American regiment that served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Graduate assistants will research the lives and service legacies of USCTs interred at Crown Hill National Cemetery and New Albany National Cemetery. The results of this research will be incorporated into a digital story map, a traveling exhibit, and curriculum packets developed for teachers.
• University of Central Missouri (UCM), grant of $399,000.
  UCM’s Veteran Voices from the Heartland project will produce biographies of noted and/or underrepresented Black and Native-American Veterans. Civil War and World War II Veterans interred at Fort Scott National Cemetery in Fort Scott, Kansas will be researched, and World War II Veterans interred at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri will be studied, as well. Neither of these cemeteries has been the focus of previous VLP projects. A website for these digital biographies will be created and a research handbook will be crafted for teachers attending the university’s summer institute.
• University of Central Florida (UCF), grant of $399,260.
  The UCF project aims to connect teachers and students to Veterans interred in St. Augustine and other Florida National Cemeteries. Deliverables will include mini tours of national cemeteries in Florida, biographies of Veterans buried in national cemeteries, and the creation of lesson plans to be used in Florida public schools. Student team members will also translate select Veteran biographies on UCF’s website into Spanish. All materials will be made available to the public via the UCF-VLP website.
• West Virginia Humanities Council, grant of $183,368.

The West Virginia National Cemeteries Project will facilitate the work of approximately 40 students at Grafton High School and University High in Morgantown. These students will compose biographies of Veterans interred at Grafton and West Virginia National Cemeteries over the next year. Student work will be made permanently available to the public though the West Virginia Humanities Council website, the Veterans Legacy Memorial and other repositories.

NCA established VLP in 2016 as a transformational effort to memorialize our Veterans. The program has awarded more than 30 contracts and six previous grants to educational organizations and engaged more than 15,000 students of all levels in Veteran research and commemoration. This newest grant award will add to the continued collection of Veterans biographies, documentaries, lesson plans, and instructional aids.

VA operates 155 national cemeteries and 34 soldiers’ lots and monument sites across the nation. More than five million Americans, including Veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA cemeteries.

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SSVF grantees are authorized to use the funds to rapidly re-house Veterans who become homeless or to prevent Veterans from becoming homeless.

“As a result of VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families program and other housing assistance efforts, Veteran homelessness has been cut in half since the launch of 2010’s Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough.

“Since then, hundreds of thousands of Veterans and their families have been placed into permanent housing or prevented from falling into homelessness by VA’s homelessness programs and targeted housing vouchers provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

SSVF grantees are in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Through partnerships with VA and community programs, SSVF provides eligible Veteran families with outreach, case management and assistance obtaining VA and other benefits, which can include health care, financial planning, childcare, legal and fiduciary payee assistance, transportation, housing counseling and other services. Helping Veterans in need of permanent housing remains a critical priority for VA. In fiscal year 2020, VA served 112,070 participants, including 77,590 Veterans and 19,919 children through the SSVF program.

This year’s grant recipient successfully competed under a Notice of Fund Availability published November 19, 2020. The funding will support SSVF services from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022.

Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs | Contributed

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