Just a week before Christmas, the Georgia Department of Veterans Service (GDVS) announced a significant milestone in the decades-long effort to create a state veterans cemetery in Augusta, since the closest one is (pictured) in Milledgeville.
A news release from GDVS has learned from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that there is now an opportunity for grant funding to support building a state veterans cemetery near Gracewood State School and Hospital.
“Augusta has applied before, but we were too far down the priority list for the available funding to reach us,” former Augusta Mayor Bob Young explained for ABD. “What’s different this time is that the funding is going to come down as far on the priority list as Augusta is located.”
Just two weeks ago, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, secured $150 million in a bipartisan funding bill for Grants for Construction of Veterans Cemeteries.
In a letter Ossoff wrote to VA Secretary Doug Collins, Ossoff specifically pointed to Augusta as a place worthy of receiving a grant.
“The establishment of a veterans’ cemetery in Augusta would support the National Cemetery Administration’s goal of providing veterans reasonable access to burial benefits within 75 miles of the veteran’s home,” the news release quoted the letter. “Augusta’s veterans deserve the access to these benefits a cemetery in Augusta would provide.”
In the GDVS news release, Commissioner Dr. Patricia Ross called this step a defining opportunity to fulfill a long-needed commitment to veterans and their families.
“GDVS is proud to partner with the VA and the City of Augusta to move this project forward. A veteran’s cemetery is more than a facility—it is a lasting promise that Georgia will honor service with dignity, gratitude, and permanence,” said Ross.
Ross points to Young, an Air Force and Vietnam War veteran, and Augusta Commissioner Don Clark, who is retired from the U.S. Army and a Bronze Star recipient, as the driving force behind the initiative.
Young first proposed creating the cemetery 25 years ago, while serving as Mayor. He said Clark’s work has helped keep the plan in the forefront of local veterans’ needs, and that has kept the community involved.
“There’s no question that without the community support, we would not be where we are today, and that not only involves the city of Augusta and its commitments to do certain tasks, to engage the cemetery, but also support from the Regional Commission, local governments from around this area, from our Veteran Service Organizations, from our congressman’s office, our senators offices, our legislative representatives offices,” he said.
The grant could provide up to $10 million in federal funding to support the construction of a veterans’ cemetery operated by the state.
“It’ll be in South Richmond County. It will hopefully, in our view at least, we anticipate it will rival Arlington as a final resting place,” said Young, adding there will be many opportunities for the community to help create a cemetery that can serve as a final resting place for the more than 66,000 veterans in the CSRA.
“Because there are things the grant won’t pay for that we need to go out and raise money for,” he said. “But at this point, just kind of pray and lift up your local officials with your encouragement and ask them just to stay the course and let’s get through the technicalities of the VA grant program.”
Young said the cemetery will stand as a permanent tribute to the men and women who served, and to the families who stood beside them. While happy the VA fund for the grants is now large enough to encompass Augusta, he said it is still a bittersweet moment.
“The sad thing is, over the past 25 years, so many of our veterans have passed on and not been able to benefit from having the veteran cemetery in Augusta.”
