Fort Stanton was the first to be completed of four sites selected for state veterans cemeteries
A grand opening for Ft. Stanton State Veterans Cemetery, New Mexico’s first state-managed cemetery for honorably discharged veterans and their spouses, is set for 1:30 p.m., Nov. 6.
The cemetery at 1398 New Mexico Highway 220, also known as Airport Road, features 650 in-ground crypts and 480 columbarium niches for cremated remains. It was built through an application sent by the state to the Veterans Administration’s Cemetery Grants Program that provides funding for VA-funded, but state-managed cemeteries for rural areas.
That application was submitted as the result of the State Cemetery Program Initiative launched by Gov. Susana Martinez in 2013 to build veterans’ cemeteries for rural New Mexico’s veterans living too far from the state’s two existing national cemeteries in Santa Fe and Ft. Bayard.
The new cemetery was built based on to VA standards and will be managed by the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services. The cemetery is situated on land adjoining the existing Ft. Stanton Merchant Marine and Military Cemetery on the grounds of historic Ft. Stanton, which opened in 1855 as a territorial outpost of the U.S. Army. The area now is a New Mexico State Historic Site.
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