Sarasota National Cemetery is a 295acre United States National Cemetery located near Sarasota, Sarasota County, Florida. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it was the sixth national cemetery developed in Florida and is expected to hold more than ten burials per day for the next ten years as World War II and Korean veterans die.HistoryThere are six other national cemeteries in Florida, but the closest to the new location, Bay Pines National Cemetery, is closed to remains buried in caskets. The Veterans Administration was authorized to establish six new burial sites by the National Cemetery Act of 2003. Areas not served by an existing National Cemetery and having at least 170,000 veteran residents included Bakersfield, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; Sarasota County, Florida; southeastern Pennsylvania, and Columbia- Greenville, South Carolina.Groundbreaking and dedication at the 295acre Sarasota site was held on June 1, 2008. The first interment was on January 9, 2009.
