Dedication for National Cemetery Set for April 22

Dedication for National Cemetery Set for April 22
By Ian Thompson

DIXON - The Sacramento Valley National Cemetery will be formally dedicated on April 22, six months after the first veteran was laid to rest there.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has yet to release details about the 2 p.m. dedication ceremony.

Fourteen acres of the cemetery were opened to burials in mid-October 2006. World War II marine Alvin Hayman, the man who sold the land to the VA two years before, was the first person buried there.

The cemetery was created to provide a burial place for the large number of veterans in the area. Before it opened, veterans had to be buried 130 miles away in the veterans cemetery in Gustine or in local cemeteries.

Work on the rest of the cemetery's first phase of construction, which covers 55 acres, will start this spring, according to the VA. The total cemetery will eventually cover 561 acres.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.