The Bakersfield National Cemetery was featured on the front page of The Bakersfield Californian today. Heres the article in its entirety: Bakersfield National Cemetery a final home for veterans BY STEVE LEVIN The Bakersfield Californian slevin@bakersfield ARVIN — The white marble symmetrics of the Bakersfield National Cemetery are peacefully unsettling, stiffly stark beneath rumpled oak-studded hills. It is hallowed ground for veterans, no more so than on Veterans Day, a day to honor American veterans of all wars. Originally known as Armistice Day when proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 on the year anniversary of the end of World War I, it became a legal holiday in 1938. The name was changed to Veterans Day in 1954, making Tuesday the 60th anniversary. National cemeteries date to 1862 when Congress gave President Lincoln the power “to purchase cemetery grounds ... to be used as a national cemetery for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country.” And it was in 1863 at the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg that he gave his famous address. Bakersfield National Cemetery was established in 2008 on 500 rolling acres donated by Tejon Ranch south of Highway 58 at its junction with Highway 223. It was the sixth national cemetery in California and one of 131 national cemeteries in 39 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Last month, it was designated a National Shrine, one of only 17 national cemeteries to earn that recognition — the only one in California — for excellence in operations, maintenance and service. “Finally, Bakersfield makes a list of great, positive things,” said Dick Taylor, director of the Kern County Veterans Service Department. “The Bakersfield National Cemetery’s unique and pristine setting is one of the crown jewels of the national cemetery system.” The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration has overseen the cemeteries since 1973 when 82 national cemeteries were transferred from the Department of the Army’s oversight to the VA. At that time, along with 21 VA veterans cemeteries at hospitals and nursing homes, the NCA system comprised 103 national cemeteries, plus 32 separate soldiers’ lots in private cemeteries, Confederate cemeteries, monument sites and government cemetery lots the Army had maintained. Expansions brought the number to the current 131 in January 2010. The National Park Service oversees 14 Civil War cemeteries, including Gettysburg. The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains 24 American military cemeteries in 10 foreign countries. The Department of the Army’s Army National Cemeteries Program is responsible for Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and the Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Bakersfield National Cemetery Nearly 22 million American veterans are alive today. About 17 percent of vets annually opt for burial in national cemeteries or state veterans cemeteries, or in public or private cemeteries with veterans’ sections. In January 2010, one of them who was buried in the Bakersfield National Cemetery was Neil Rice, 59, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant who served in Vietnam. “He was thrilled when they put (the cemetery in),” said his wife of 31 years, Donna. “There was absolutely no doubt the first time he saw it. He loves oak trees and there are oak trees near his grave. It could not have been a better spot for his final place.” There were 124,787 national cemetery interments in fiscal year 2013; 728 of those were in Bakersfield. The busiest national cemetery is in Riverside, with 8,267 interments in fiscal year 2013. Nearly 3,500 veterans are buried at the Bakersfield National Cemetery or have their ashes stacked in two columbariums. Some are buried with spouses and eligible dependents. One vet had his ashes scattered in the ossuary. Burial is open to any member of the military who dies on active duty or is honorably discharged. “The importance of having the cemetery here is that it elevates the final resting place for our vets to the level of Arlington,” Taylor said. “The ability for us who are still living to provide a lasting way to honor, to commemorate and to remember those who served in the armed forces is very important.” The NCA mandates new burial areas within cemeteries be constructed at 10-year intervals; Bakersfield’s was completed two years ago, adding space for 3,000 casket graves, 8,000 in-ground cremation graves and 6,000 columbarium spaces, enough to last until 2022. The 37 acres developed to date are part of 190 acres now used by the cemetery for burial grounds, roads, a maintenance shop and two assembly areas. The remaining 310 acres have been leased back to Tejon Ranch for grazing. At its current burial rate, Bakersfield has enough burial acreage for the next two centuries. New burial areas are contoured to blend in with the surroundings and cannot have a slope exceeding 3 degrees. Preplaced cement vaults measuring 3 feet by 8 feet are set in the ground to hold caskets. Some national cemeteries — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Golden Gate and Fort Rosencrans, along with some three dozen others — are “closed” to casket burials for lack of space. Families pay for their casket or urn and funeral home costs. The inscribed headstone, vaults, perpetual care and commital services with honors is paid by the federal government. Each headstone weighs 240 pounds, and is required to be in place within 60 days of burial. Once in the ground, the headstone’s front and side angles must be 89 to 90 degrees and the exposed headstone between 24 and 26 inches high to create, according to federal guidelines, “a pleasing top line.” The space between rows is just as exact — 8 feet for casket graves, 4 feet for cremation graves. The standard headstone information included is military branch, years of service, rank, birth date and date of death. One of 59 different “emblems of belief” can be added. Local support While the federal government provides the land, staff and burial costs at each national cemetery, many improvements at the cemeteries themselves are not covered. That’s why most have a support committee to serve as liaison with local foundations and service groups and to help direct the cemetery’s design. Tom Pasek is president of the Bakersfield National Cemetery Support Committee. Along with the Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary, it coordinates the annual Wreaths Across America project, a $50,000 effort to place wreaths at each grave and columbarium column on the second Saturday of each December, which this year is Dec. 13. In addition to its other ongoing programs — the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, a Tejon Ranch fundraiser and Friends of Fallen Heroes, which ensures no vet is buried without mourners present — the committee is tweaking the cemetery’s master plan. A major part of that will be raising $1 million to extend the current walk up to and around a 92-foot-high hill in a “Walk of Valor” or “Memorial Walkway” that would be lined with monuments honoring military events and units. A separate project is developing a new “Avenue of Flags,” a nearly mile-long loop road with a total of about 90 flags every 40 feet on alternating sides. Originally, the cemetery’s “Avenue of Flags” had 13 flags set along the entryway median off East Bear Mountain Boulevard, but in 2009 an underground spring toppled the flagpoles. The flags now flank the entrance. Cemetery Director Daniel M. Cassidy and foreman James Columbia lead the cemetery’s 10-person staff. Burial areas are raked daily, Indian grass sways in the breeze, walkways and public areas are set perfectly in the rugged ranchland and among granite outcroppings, and there’s not a speck of trash. “It should look great every day, all day,” said Columbia, the longest-tenured staff member at the cemetery. “If I had a father or brother buried here, how would I want his spot to be? That’s how I want it all to be. “They just want to know their loved one is being cared for.” LEARN MORE For more information about national cemeteries in general and Bakersfield National Cemetery in particular, visit these websites or call the numbers provided: • Bakersfield National Cemetery Service Committee: 379-7363, bncsc.org • bakersfieldwreathproject.org • National Cemetery Administration: cem.va.gov • Burial and plot allowances veterans:for benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/ factsheets/burials/burial.pdf • Emblems of belief available for national cemetery headstones: cem.va.gov/hmm/emblems.asp • Rural Burial Initiative: va.gov/ opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id= 2362 Large oak trees stand tall around the headstones in the Bakersfield National Cemetery. See more photos on Bakersfield . An American flag is posted next to some of the headstones in the cemetery, which was established in 2008 on 500 rolling acres donated by Tejon Ranch. ABOUT THE CEMETERY • Bakersfield National Cemetery is one of only three without lawns (the others are Phoenix and Fort Bliss, Texas); water resources aren’t sufficient. • The first interment was the simultaneous burial of the ashes of 10 veterans on July 1, 2009. The first casket burial was the next day. • The National Cemetery Expansion Act of 2003 authorized the creation of six new national cemeteries, including the Bakersfield National Cemetery. • Bakersfield National Cemetery was the 45th busiest cemetery in fiscal year 2013. The busiest was Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside. • Bakersfield National Cemetery’s 500 acres is less than half the size of the largest national cemetery in Calverton, N.Y., which has 1,045 acres. The smallest is the Hampton, Va., VA National Cemetery, at one-third of an acre. • The approximately 3,500 gravesites at the Bakersfield National Cemetery represent a tiny fraction of the 3.3 million gravesites at all national cemeteries. • The National Shrine designation was earned by Bakersfield National Cemetery after a quadrennial inspection by the National Cemetery Association’s Organizational Assessment and Improvement Program, a weeklong, on-site 21-point analysis of each national cemetery’s paperwork, standards, training and service, and includes a survey of both local families and funeral homes that have done business with the cemetery. • Only one grave in the Bakersfield National Cemetery belongs to a veteran killed in action: U.S. Army Maj. Jason Everett George. • No burials are allowed on Veterans Day. • The cemetery is not allowed to be closed for burials for more than two consecutive days. • If a veteran was buried at sea, had ashes scattered elsewhere or donated his or her body to science, a plaque is placed on the cemetery’s Memorial Wall. • National cemeteries are based on VA-defined areas of influence. The Bakersfield National Cemetery serves Kern, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Kings, Inyo and Mono counties, although any veteran from anywhere can seek burial there. • The area’s Fort Tejon hosted 28 camels from 1859 to 1861, but the herd was never used in military operations. • Wal-Mart provides a tractor-trailer for transporting thousands of wreaths specifically for the cemetery’s annual Wreaths Across America.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:32:04 +0000
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