The federal government opened three new veterans' cemeteries around the country this year, but thousands of military veterans still find they live hundreds of miles away from a possible final resting spot alongside fellow vets.

In southern Utah, for example, veterans teamed up over the past year to try to open their own cemetery. The only one now in Utah, a huge state that about 150,000 former troops call home, is in the northern region.

Raymond Cartwright, a resident of Kanarraville who served in Vietnam, says he and others secured enough land for the cemetery but couldn't afford the maintenance and burial expenses. That left vets in southern Utah facing a choice faced by thousands of others nationwide: get buried far from home in a veterans' cemetery or in a local cemetery not specifically for veterans.

"We just wanted to get a veterans' cemetery so they could be together," Cartwright, 58, says.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says there are nearly 300,000 open burial plots in national veterans' cemeteries and thousands more available at state-run vet cemeteries, meaning there is no shortage of spaces. Nevertheless, the department says it is still at least two years away from fulfilling its goal of offering burials to 90% of veterans within 75 miles of their homes.

"If you travel hundreds of miles to visit a loved one, you're thinking about it the whole trip," says Norm Sullivan, 61, who lives in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.,

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but drives nearly 150 miles to visit the grave of his father, who drove landing craft on Normandy Beach in World War II.

"You want to say hello to your loved ones, or goodbye, or say a little prayer," he says. "But it is very difficult."

The push for new cemeteries comes during an economic recession that has forced governments to lay off workers and cut budgets. Veterans worry that the tough times could lead some governments to decide that conveniently placed burial spots is a luxury taxpayers can't afford right now.

"Recession or not, I think it's something that you should still pursue," says Joe Nelson, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves who has served in Iraq.

The VA runs 128 national cemeteries; 58 are closed for new internments. States run more than 90 cemeteries that fill in the gaps.

Veterans who have served at least two years and were not dishonorably discharged are generally guaranteed a free burial plot. The U.S. military and the VA help active-duty and retired vets with burial expenses.

The VA pays all the costs for its national cemeteries. And though it helps states pay for initial construction costs of their own cemeteries, states are on the hook for most of the remaining costs.

For every burial performed at a state cemetery, the national VA pays the cemetery $300. Tim Tetz, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services, says each burial ends up costing them well over $1,000, leaving them short on staff and struggling to maintain their state cemeteries adequately.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced a measure that would shift about $330 million over the next 10 years from states to the federal government by raising the per-burial payment to $745.

"Helping to make sure our veterans have an appropriate final resting place is the very least we as a country can do to thank them for their service," Sanders says.