“Veterans on Guam for too long have been accustomed to empty election-year promises from elected officials that we will work to improve the cemetery and services for them. I’m proud to be a leader who gets to deliver on my promise to them to expand and improve the cemetery. It makes me feel like a good and grateful citizen when we promote housing services for veterans, and other programs in the works.  We have a lot more work to do to repay veterans for the sacrifices they’ve made for us, but we’re on the right track, and we’re headed in the right direction.” — Governor Eddie Baza Calvo
 
Veterans cemetery to expand, get upgrade
Another campaign promise is being met. We will be expanding the Guam Veterans Cemetery and improving all its current gravesites.
 
About 2,000 new gravesites on two acres to be developed
The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs personally informed the administration of the approval of a $3.2 million grant to develop about 2,000 gravesites on two acres that will be the final resting place for Guam’s heroes. Of these gravesites, about 900 will be pre-placed crypts, and about 1,100 will be columbarium niches (for cremation urns). The development will include entry monument and gates, roadways, an irrigation system, landscaping, and supporting infrastructure.
 
Existing headstones to be improved
As for the existing gravesites at the Piti cemetery, 2,000 headstones will be raised, realigned, and cleaned, along with the rehabilitation of accompanying turf and supporting infrastructure over the cemetery’s current 13-acre sprawl. Secretary Eric Shinseki informed Guam Veterans Affairs Office Administrator John Unpingco that $160,293 for this project is being awarded to Guam, in addition to the $3.2 million expansion grant.
 
Grants are 100% federally funded
Both grants are 100-percent federally funded. Guam applied for these grants this past August. The grant applications follow months of planning to expand the cemetery, and two years of enforcing rules and regulations that have improved the cemetery.

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