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"OMAHA, Neb. — A long-awaited national cemetery for U.S. military veterans and their families south of Omaha will be dedicated this week before accepting its first burials this fall.
The Omaha National Cemetery will be dedicated Friday at an off-site ceremony in Sarpy County. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to complete an initial segment of several acres of the property to be used for in-ground casket and cremation burials as early as September, cemetery director Cindy Van Bibber said. "Toward the end of August ... we're going to start allowing them to schedule services," Van Bibber said Friday.
The VA began taking calls for the first burials at the Omaha cemetery on June 6, Van Bibber said. By Friday, families of 100 veterans had contacted cemetery officials to establish a case for burial at the cemetery along South 144th Street. "We actually have someone from 1996 that has been waiting for burial," she said."
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"Jim Skaja, 90, of Bellevue, is a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars who has been tapped to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at Friday's ceremony.
He said the new cemetery is drawing lots of interest from veterans he knows — particularly Air Force retirees from Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha. "I'm sure it's going to be my future home," he said.
Plans for the cemetery had been in the works for more than a decade, but officials weren't able to move on them because of a rule requiring at least 170,000 veterans to live within a 75-mile radius of the proposed cemetery site. President Barack Obama's administration relaxed the rule in 2009 and started budgeting for the cemetery the next year. A committee selected the site south of Interstate 80 and purchased it for $6.2 million in 2012."
More here: http://www.stripes.com/news/us/ceremony-set-for-new-omaha-national-cemetery-for-veterans-1.421840
"
The Omaha National Cemetery will be dedicated Friday at an off-site ceremony in Sarpy County. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to complete an initial segment of several acres of the property to be used for in-ground casket and cremation burials as early as September, cemetery director Cindy Van Bibber said. "Toward the end of August ... we're going to start allowing them to schedule services," Van Bibber said Friday.
The VA began taking calls for the first burials at the Omaha cemetery on June 6, Van Bibber said. By Friday, families of 100 veterans had contacted cemetery officials to establish a case for burial at the cemetery along South 144th Street. "We actually have someone from 1996 that has been waiting for burial," she said."
.....
"Jim Skaja, 90, of Bellevue, is a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars who has been tapped to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at Friday's ceremony.
He said the new cemetery is drawing lots of interest from veterans he knows — particularly Air Force retirees from Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha. "I'm sure it's going to be my future home," he said.
Plans for the cemetery had been in the works for more than a decade, but officials weren't able to move on them because of a rule requiring at least 170,000 veterans to live within a 75-mile radius of the proposed cemetery site. President Barack Obama's administration relaxed the rule in 2009 and started budgeting for the cemetery the next year. A committee selected the site south of Interstate 80 and purchased it for $6.2 million in 2012."
More here: http://www.stripes.com/news/us/ceremony-set-for-new-omaha-national-cemetery-for-veterans-1.421840
"