Jacksonville National Cemetery is a

United States National Cemetery The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 164 cemeteries in the United States and its territories. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War, in an act passed by the U.S. Congress o ...

located within the city of

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

, in the city's

Northside Northside or North Side may refer to: Music * Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * " Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vinc ...

area. It encompasses , and began interments on January 7, 2009.
Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, Jacksonville National Cemetery factsheet

History

The relatively close St. Augustine National Cemetery was closed to interments in the 1990s, so the nearest location was the

Florida National Cemetery Florida National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located near the city of Bushnell in Sumter County, Florida. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs it encompasses and began interments in 1988. It is now ...

in Bushnell, 143 miles from Jacksonville.Brumley, Jeff
"Jacksonville National Cemetery a big plus for families of veterans"
Florida Times-Union, May 10, 2011

Site status

Initial construction began in August, 2008 and created a burial area with temporary facilities. Stage 1A was completed in December, 2008, and the grounds were consecrated January 5, 2009. The second construction stage is scheduled to commence in the summer of 2009 and include an entrance, roadways within the section, permanent buildings for administration and maintenance, a public information center and two shelters for services during inclement weather. Infrastructure consisting of drainage, fencing, landscaping, irrigation and utilities is also being built. The section under development will provide 8,145 gravesites, including 7,300 pre-placed

crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...

s, 5,100 in-ground cremation sites and 4,992

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...

niches. In May 2011, the cemetery contained the remains of over 1,000 veterans, having been open for 28 months. As of August 2019, the cemetery contained over 16,000 memorials. As of August 2022, the cemetery has over 22,500 interments.

Notable interments

* Jack D. Hunter,Legacy.com obituary
/ref> author, including the bestseller, ''

The Blue Max ''The Blue Max'' is a 1966 British war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot i ...

'' (1964), which became a 1966 movie. Hunter served as an Army counterintelligence officer during and after World War II.

References

External links

National Cemetery Administration

Jacksonville National Cemetery
* * {{Jacksonville attractions 2009 establishments in Florida Cemeteries in Florida United States national cemeteries Military in Jacksonville, Florida Protected areas of Duval County, Florida Geography of Jacksonville, Florida Northside, Jacksonville