VAN METER, Iowa —

Bill Knapp, a Des Moines businessman who died Saturday , was interred Friday at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Van Meter.

Dozens attended the service, which included military honors.

Knapp donated the land that became the cemetery in the early 2000s. Patrick Palmersheim, executive director of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, said he favored the site north of Van Meter but told Knapp the state could not afford it; Knapp instead donated the property to establish the cemetery.

Knapp was a Navy veteran who served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. During the Battle of Okinawa, he piloted landing craft, taking soldiers to the beach and returning with the dead and wounded. In 2010, he spent more than $300,000 to send a plane of Central Iowa World War II ve

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