DUBLIN -- By Memorial Day 2010, an empty stretch of land just outside Dublin will be transformed into what 35-year Army veteran Dallas Cox called "a visible reminder of the people who served and kept us free."

Dotted with trees -- and eventually granite headstones -- the 80-acre veterans cemetery will be a place where veterans can take their grandchildren, Cox said, a place to remember and a place to pay tribute.

"It's really a monument, as opposed to a graveyard," explained Cox, who is also a member of Dublin Town Council.

Yet before construction on Virginia's third state veterans cemetery can begin, a number of land transfer and federal grant issues must be addressed. And on Monday, U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, was in Dublin to explain what had to take place, and when.

"Under long-standing practice, the federal government finances the construction of veterans cemeteries and the states operate them," Boucher said to an audience of about 15. "Following that practice, we are looking to the federal government to provide the land and then provide a grant for the purpose of constructing the facility."

For decades, the land that will one day be a cemetery has sat empty but for pine trees and brush.

Now part of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, the property must be conveyed from the U.S. Army to the state in a multi-requirement process that Boucher estimated would be complete this summer.

In addition, Boucher said, a final cemetery master plan must be chosen and project funding approved.

Estimated to cost up to $11 million, construction of the veterans cemetery will initially be paid for by the state. The state will later be repaid with a federal grant, and Boucher said he anticipated that grant would be awarded in December. Construction of the cemetery is expected to begin in early 2009.

While it will be years before servicemen and women can be buried in the cemetery, Boucher encouraged eligible veterans and their families to submit pre-applications for interment.

Dan Kemano, cemeteries director for the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, said he had already received 20 to 30 pre-applications and, once the cemetery opened, he expected to have about 350 burials there each year.

Most, he said, would be for veterans who lived within a 50- to 75-mile radius of the cemetery.

"With the property we have, we estimate the cemetery should last 60 to 80 years," Kemano said.

Once open and operational, Kemano said, the veterans cemetery would require about $350,000 a year, four full-time employees and one part-time employee, to run.

Gripping a handful of pre-application forms to distribute to his "buddies," Cox said stepping foot in the cemetery would be a momentous occasion.

"It means I am part of the history that kept this country the way it is," he said. "When you're standing on it, you're standing on hallowed ground."