MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - The federal government has approved construction of Montana's third state veterans cemetery, six years after Missoula veterans first asked for a closer final resting place.

More than 36,000 Montana veterans live west of Lewis and Clark County, making it a long drive for family and friends whose loved ones are buried at the existing veterans cemeteries in Helena and Miles City, said Charlie Crookshanks, chairman of the Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery Committee.

"Our service veterans have given so much to this country, they must not be overlooked," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. "It is important that we provide them with this final resting place."

Tester came to the cemetery site Saturday to announce that a bureaucratic logjam has been broken, and construction on the $3.25 million project can begin.

Bids will be advertised within the next two months and construction should begin by fall, said Joe Foster, administrator of the Montana Veterans Affairs Division.

Completion is expected by fall 2008. The cemetery will be open to any veteran who was honorably discharged from the military, and his or her spouse.

Many families are holding on to their loved one's ashes until they can be buried at the new site, said committee member Gary Sorensen, who is retired from the U.S. Army.

"I plan to be buried here," he said. "My wife died in 2003, and I am saving her ashes to be buried here as well."

It took years to find and secure the 23 acres north of Big Sky High School for the cemetery. The state later transferred the land from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to the Veterans Affairs Division, and the federal funding arrived more than a year ago.

The cemetery's design and construction plan, however, still needed approval from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs before ground could be broken. It appeared to be lost in federal bureaucracy.

Foster and the Missoula veterans asked Tester for help shortly after he took office earlier this year and was assigned to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. A month ago, Tester met for lunch with Jim Nicholson, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"It was time to get this thing moving forward," Tester said. "I was able to take that message to the secretary eyeball to eyeball, and he responded appropriately."

The formal letter of approval arrived on Foster's desk Friday.

Tester, however, said the real credit goes to the Missoula veterans who spent the past six years lobbying for the site.

"I want to thank these folks for laying the groundwork to make it happen," he said. "With everybody working together, we can get good projects done."