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FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO. -- Officials dedicated Missouri’s sixth veteran’s cemetery Monday.

It is located at Fort Leonard Wood and will nearly double the total acreage designated specifically for the burial of veterans.

It sits on 229 acres of land just outside the Waynesville city limits at the edge of Fort Leonard Wood. With six such burial sites, Missouri ranks second in the for the total number of veteran’s cemeteries. 

"We rank first in the nation in terms of total veteran cemetery acreage, at 524 acres,” Missouri Veteran Commission Chairman John Comerford said.  

Donated by Fort Leonard Wood, enough land has already been cleared for nearly 7,300 burial sites, more than a dozen of which are already in use. Missouri's veteran’s cemeteries provide gravesites and burial services at no charge to qualified veterans and their families.

When the site is fully developed, there will room for more than 25 thousand veteran graves.

"We passed a car that had a bumper sticker on it that said, 'If you love freedom, thank a veteran,'” Rep. Ike Skelton, (D) Missouri said. “Today, this is the ultimate debt of gratitude.”

As chairman of the house armed services committee, Skelton has cultivated a partnership between the pentagon and the show-me state.

"The 7.5 million dollars that was awarded to Missouri for Fort Leonard Wood in September of 2008 is just a continuing expression of the partnership,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Frank Salvas said.

The VA oversees 133 veteran’s cemeteries across the country. Congress has asked the agency to take over control of the 330,000 graves at Arlington National Cemetery from the Pentagon, which has spent tens of millions of dollars and lost track of thousand of gravesites.

"We're hopeful that we will be able to ensure to each and every family that the veterans that are buried at Arlington truly are honored and respected,” Salvas said.