SUFFOLK, Va. (WVEC) — Governor Ralph Northam joined other state and federal leaders Wednesday at the Albert G. Horton, Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk to accept a $10.2 million federal grant.
The grant is considered the largest single investment in a veterans cemetery by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The money will go toward the cemetery’s third expansion project.
More than 11,500 veterans and their families are buried at the cemetery, and that number continues to increase every year.
Northam explained that the expansion project lines up with an ongoing goal to have a veterans cemetery no more than 75 miles from every veteran in the state.
“This is a step in the right direction for that,” said Northam. “Because at the end of the day we want to do anything we can to take care of our veterans.”
The grant will go toward several additions and improvements, including 7,000 new crypts for future burials.
The investment will allow the cemetery to serve our military community for the next seven to eight decades.