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JACKSONVILLE, MO -- One local cemetery has brought home a prestigious award to the Heartland. The state veteran’s cemetery in Jacksonville, Missouri received the excellence in appearance award from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The veteran’s cemetery grants program director Joshua Deleon traveled from Washington D.C. to award Larry Carmer, the cemetery's director with the award. This award is very hard to achieve. Of the more than 80 national cemetery administration funded state veterans cemeteries across the country, less than 10% have this coveted award.

 “Every 3 years we have a tri-annual inspection by the VA's national cemetary administration and this past year July 11th we underwent our inspection and we met and exceeded all of the operation standards and so we were awarded the National Cemeteries Excellence of Appearance award and all the credit goes to the crew,” said Larry Carmer cemetery director of Jacksonville Veteran’s Cemetery.

Each ground crewmen received a commemorative coin for their hard work keeping the state veterans cemetery in pristine condition.