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Wondering where I am!?!?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/23/garden-heroes/
After 10 years of red tape, the Department of Veterans Affairs will break ground next month on a new cemetery at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, bringing relief to the county’s military population amid a national surge in demand created by dying World War II and Korean War veterans.
The United States has spent $137 million creating six national veterans cemeteries in the past two years, the biggest boom since the Civil War. The Miramar project, expected to cost at least $20 million for the first phase, comes in addition to those because it is considered an “annex” to the maxed-out Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma.
San Diego veterans are thrilled about the Jan. 30 groundbreaking, the end of a long battle for this military town.
“People can’t wait for Miramar to open. I get calls all the time, almost daily,” said Kirk Leopard, director of the Fort Rosecrans cemetery and a former Navy corpsman.
Robert Cardenas, a retired Air Force brigadier general, said the burial grounds’ location is fitting.
“I know I’ll be dead and what not, but as a pilot it’d be nice to think there’s going to be the roar of a jet coming over me all the time,” said Cardenas, 89, who flew combat missions during World War II and in Vietnam and helped lead the push for the new cemetery.
Starting in September, veterans can choose local casket burials instead of settling for cremation or making their loved ones commute to Riverside National Cemetery to pay respects. Miramar will offer about 11,500 traditional burial sites and nearly 15,000 spots for cremated remains in its first phase.
Veterans have pushed for more military burial space in the county since the late 1990s, but their cause was delayed by Veterans Affairs rules and environmental snags.
The result is a layout that doesn’t look much like Fort Rosecrans or Arlington national cemeteries, with their symmetrical rows of white headstones on a vast carpet of green lawn.
At Miramar, VA officials found they had to work around vernal pools — shallow depressions in the earth that fill with rainwater and can house the threatened fairy shrimp. They also had to protect the endangered California gnatcatcher, a bird that nests in the scrubby brush covering the rolling hills on the base’s unused western edge.
So, graves will be arranged in clusters. Between the turfed clusters, the land will be kept as it looks now — with native plants. Cardenas said the atmosphere will be like a “garden of heroes.”
“It’s going to be a more modern cemetery in many ways, and yet more beautiful in terms of design than the old empty fields with rows,” he said.
To meet environmental requirements, the VA also had to purchase nearly 16 acres of gnatcatcher territory near Mission Trails Regional Park to recoup the loss of habitat at Miramar.
The cemetery design incorporates one of the larger vernal pools, building a “memorial walk” around the water with at least one statue provided by a veterans group and signs describing the endangered creatures living nearby. The VA also will re-create some vernal pools destroyed by the construction.
It’s not exactly what the San Diego chapter of the California Native Plant Society would like to see happen. The group, which has filed public comments on the development process, would have preferred that VA officials choose a site without so many ecologically sensitive areas because vernal pools are hard to re-establish, said chapter conservation chairwoman Carrie Schneider.
“Miramar is one of the best collections of vernal pools we have in San Diego,” Schneider said. “It’s one of the few places that have been undeveloped, because of the military.”
Veterans think the VA is doing the right thing environmentally. For example, the cemetery will use reclaimed water from “purple pipes” to irrigate the green areas.
“I’m hoping that for many generations this will be the model for a national veterans cemetery,” said Steve Arends, a former Navy pilot who is active with the San Diego United Veterans Council.
The national surge in deaths of World War II and Korean War veterans is expected to taper off starting in 2017, which is projected to be the first year since at least 2001 that deaths will drop below 600,000 annually. VA officials said they hope the Miramar cemetery will fill the need for at least 50 or 60 years.
Veterans say the new site may lead to an unusual trend: relocation. Family members who buried loved ones at the Riverside cemetery can have those caskets moved to Miramar, at their own expense.
Last year, according to the VA, Riverside was the busiest national cemetery in the United States, with 8,340 interments. Because Fort Rosecrans has been closed to most casket burials since the mid-1960s, San Diego County veterans almost certainly have had a lot to do with that figure.
“If you were 80 years old and you lost your husband and you had to drive (Interstate) 15 to Riverside … you’re probably not going to drive up there very much,” Cardenas said. “Now you’re going to be more relaxed knowing your loved one is nearby.”
The last potential wrinkle for the Miramar cemetery project is its name.
Among the three circulating, many San Diego veterans prefer the simplest: Miramar National Cemetery.
Technically, the new burial ground is considered an annex, not a stand-alone national cemetery, because VA rules frown on creating cemeteries within 75 miles of existing ones.
The other names being considered are Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery at Miramar and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Annex at Miramar.
VA officials are expected to announce their decision early next year.
After 10 years of red tape, the Department of Veterans Affairs will break ground next month on a new cemetery at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, bringing relief to the county’s military population amid a national surge in demand created by dying World War II and Korean War veterans.
The United States has spent $137 million creating six national veterans cemeteries in the past two years, the biggest boom since the Civil War. The Miramar project, expected to cost at least $20 million for the first phase, comes in addition to those because it is considered an “annex” to the maxed-out Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma.
San Diego veterans are thrilled about the Jan. 30 groundbreaking, the end of a long battle for this military town.
“People can’t wait for Miramar to open. I get calls all the time, almost daily,” said Kirk Leopard, director of the Fort Rosecrans cemetery and a former Navy corpsman.
Robert Cardenas, a retired Air Force brigadier general, said the burial grounds’ location is fitting.
“I know I’ll be dead and what not, but as a pilot it’d be nice to think there’s going to be the roar of a jet coming over me all the time,” said Cardenas, 89, who flew combat missions during World War II and in Vietnam and helped lead the push for the new cemetery.
Starting in September, veterans can choose local casket burials instead of settling for cremation or making their loved ones commute to Riverside National Cemetery to pay respects. Miramar will offer about 11,500 traditional burial sites and nearly 15,000 spots for cremated remains in its first phase.
Veterans have pushed for more military burial space in the county since the late 1990s, but their cause was delayed by Veterans Affairs rules and environmental snags.
The result is a layout that doesn’t look much like Fort Rosecrans or Arlington national cemeteries, with their symmetrical rows of white headstones on a vast carpet of green lawn.
At Miramar, VA officials found they had to work around vernal pools — shallow depressions in the earth that fill with rainwater and can house the threatened fairy shrimp. They also had to protect the endangered California gnatcatcher, a bird that nests in the scrubby brush covering the rolling hills on the base’s unused western edge.
So, graves will be arranged in clusters. Between the turfed clusters, the land will be kept as it looks now — with native plants. Cardenas said the atmosphere will be like a “garden of heroes.”
“It’s going to be a more modern cemetery in many ways, and yet more beautiful in terms of design than the old empty fields with rows,” he said.
To meet environmental requirements, the VA also had to purchase nearly 16 acres of gnatcatcher territory near Mission Trails Regional Park to recoup the loss of habitat at Miramar.
The cemetery design incorporates one of the larger vernal pools, building a “memorial walk” around the water with at least one statue provided by a veterans group and signs describing the endangered creatures living nearby. The VA also will re-create some vernal pools destroyed by the construction.
It’s not exactly what the San Diego chapter of the California Native Plant Society would like to see happen. The group, which has filed public comments on the development process, would have preferred that VA officials choose a site without so many ecologically sensitive areas because vernal pools are hard to re-establish, said chapter conservation chairwoman Carrie Schneider.
“Miramar is one of the best collections of vernal pools we have in San Diego,” Schneider said. “It’s one of the few places that have been undeveloped, because of the military.”
Veterans think the VA is doing the right thing environmentally. For example, the cemetery will use reclaimed water from “purple pipes” to irrigate the green areas.
“I’m hoping that for many generations this will be the model for a national veterans cemetery,” said Steve Arends, a former Navy pilot who is active with the San Diego United Veterans Council.
The national surge in deaths of World War II and Korean War veterans is expected to taper off starting in 2017, which is projected to be the first year since at least 2001 that deaths will drop below 600,000 annually. VA officials said they hope the Miramar cemetery will fill the need for at least 50 or 60 years.
Veterans say the new site may lead to an unusual trend: relocation. Family members who buried loved ones at the Riverside cemetery can have those caskets moved to Miramar, at their own expense.
Last year, according to the VA, Riverside was the busiest national cemetery in the United States, with 8,340 interments. Because Fort Rosecrans has been closed to most casket burials since the mid-1960s, San Diego County veterans almost certainly have had a lot to do with that figure.
“If you were 80 years old and you lost your husband and you had to drive (Interstate) 15 to Riverside … you’re probably not going to drive up there very much,” Cardenas said. “Now you’re going to be more relaxed knowing your loved one is nearby.”
The last potential wrinkle for the Miramar cemetery project is its name.
Among the three circulating, many San Diego veterans prefer the simplest: Miramar National Cemetery.
Technically, the new burial ground is considered an annex, not a stand-alone national cemetery, because VA rules frown on creating cemeteries within 75 miles of existing ones.
The other names being considered are Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery at Miramar and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Annex at Miramar.
VA officials are expected to announce their decision early next year.