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Killeen: 6,000 call veterans cemetery a final resting placeKilleen: 6,000 call veterans cemetery a final resting placehttps://www.recenter.tamu.edu/news/newstalk-texas/?Item=9052015-05-27T18:48:00Z2015-05-27T07:00:00Z

KILLEEN - Killeen has biggest, busiest veterans cemetery in Texas. About 60 veterans or their dependents are buried at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen every month.

While one $5 million expansion project just wrapped up, planning and discussion for another similar expansion will likely begin in January.

Opened in January 2006 after Fort Hood donated 174 acres for the project, the Killeen cemetery was the first of four state-funded cemeteries to be built and run by the Veterans Land Board.

The cemetery in Killeen “is our flagship cemetery,” said Eric Brown, deputy director of Texas State Veterans Cemetery Program. “That’s our busiest cemetery.”

The other state veterans cemeteries are in Mission, Abilene and Corpus Christi. Of the 10,000 veterans and dependents buried in the four state cemeteries, the Killeen location accounts for just over 6,000.

As part of the recent expansion project, 4,000 burial crypts were added, along with new capstones on the columbaria and new turf and landscape features, such as bushes and trees.

“The initial phase of development included 7,620 gravesites on 31 acres,” according to the release. “The cemetery will eventually be capable of providing a final resting place to more than 50,000 veterans and their family members.”

Of the 174 acres owned by the cemetery, 143 are undeveloped.

Despite the growth, Brown said the cemetery should be able to keep up with demand until the cemetery reaches its capacity of 50,000 interments, which it could reach in the next 40 to 50 years.

“Cemeteries grow; they don’t get smaller,” Brown said.

Killeen Daily Herald
Killeen-Temple
Military
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