With new burial methods, Veterans Affairs officials foresee having space at the Chattanooga National Cemetery for about 30 more years, but some veterans remain concern about the lack of a long-term solution.

“We don’t want to go the way of Nashville and Knoxville (national cemeteries), which have been closed to new burials — except if the spouse is already buried at the cemetery,” said Ronnie Williams, president of the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council.

“I would not like to see Chattanooga closed because there’s no more space, that’s why we have to think about the future. We got young soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq who are going to come home and live and would like to one day be buried in the national cemetery,” he added.

Officials of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration met with a group of about 50 veterans at the American Legion Post 95 in East Ridge on Monday to discuss the development of the national cemetery.

“The system of national cemeteries around the country began during the Civil War and many of them were located because they were near battlefields. In many cases over 140 years, cities have grown around the cemetery,” said Bill Jayne, cemetery development coordinator for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

“The veterans in Chattanooga are concerned this cemetery will run out of space and when will it run out of space and they want to know what the VA will do keep it open,” he added.

Mr. Jayne presented two short-term construction projects already proposed that would add more than 16,000 crypts and allow the cemetery to continue services until 2048.

While most veterans support the plan, as long as the character of the cemetery is retained, they want to see an expansion.

“We have to get our elected officials to get the funds appropriated so the people in the Veterans Affairs Department can move. Right now there hands are tied,” retired Army Brig. Gen. Carl Levi said.

“We have thousands and thousands of reservists that have been called up and there’s not going to be any space for them unless we expand the cemetery,” added retired Rear Adm. Noah Long, of Signal Mountain, who served in Vietnam with the Navy.

Mr. Jayne said acquiring the land immediately south of the cemetery is very challenging because of the different owners among many other issues.

“You got immediate needs and needs 60 years out in the future, and you have to balance that,” he said. “Right now it’s more prudent to focus ourselves in the land we already own.”