Phil Holwager walked slowly along the orderly rows of headstones at the state veterans cemetery in Suffolk, satisfied with his decision to someday lie here.
The former Navy chaplain saw many military burial grounds during his 36 years of service, but found the freshly cut grass and young cherry trees of Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery to be the best match.
“I was here for Memorial Day, and I was very impressed with the dignity and honor expressed here,” said Holwager, 74, who lives in Suffolk with his wife. “I could have picked Arlington, but probably my family would never make it back up there after I was buried.”
Holwager is among an estimated 737,000 veterans in Virginia - about a quarter of whom live in Hampton Roads - entitled to interment at a state or national cemetery.
But of the 16 national sites in Virginia, including Arlington National Cemetery, only three are accepting new burials, said Dan Kemano, director of cemeteries for the Virginia Department of Veterans Services.
State officials have addressed that shortage by opening two state veterans cemeteries - the Suffolk site and another in Amelia - each with enough room for the next 80 years. But many don’t know those sites exist.
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