http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080525/D90SFO280.html
Veterans' burials nonstop at national cemeteries
May 25, 1:38 AM (ET)
By JOE MILICIA
(AP) A color guard fires a salute during a military burial ceremony at the
Ohio Western Reserve...
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RITTMAN, Ohio (AP) - The cracking of rifle fire silenced the twittering
blue
jays, blackbirds and killdeer.
As members of the color guard lowered their rifles, the smell of bitter
smoke
drifted over the family and friends of former Army Sgt. Ellis Hale, a
Vietnam
War veteran who died of prostate cancer at age 59. Sniffles and gentle
sobs
accompanied a recording of taps.
Moments after the final note, Sherry Hale walked down a curved brick
walkway
past the saluting line of representatives of the country's past wars. Head
bowed, she clutched to her chest the American flag that covered her
husband's
casket.
The scene at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery is repeated
nationwide
more than 100 times a day. Military veterans are being buried at such a
rapid
rate that national cemeteries use heavy equipment to make room.
(AP) Sherry Hale, second left, leaves the military burial ceremony for her
husband, Army Sgt. Ellis...
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"We're still in growth mode right now," said Bill Tuerk, under secretary
for
memorial affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "We're in a
very
high demand time period and we're trying to respond to it."
An average of 1,800 veterans die each day, and 10 percent of them are
buried
in the country's 125 national cemeteries, which are expected to set a
record
with 107,000 interments, including dependents, this year. And more
national
cemeteries are being built.
The peak year for veterans' deaths will be either 2007 or 2008, Tuerk
said. An
estimated 686,000 veterans died in 2007. While many World War II veterans
are
dying, so are an increased number of Korean War and Vietnam veterans.
Ohio Western Reserve, a 273-acre expanse south of Cleveland, opened in
2000
and has about 11,000 veterans and dependents buried there. It has enough
land
to keep it open 92 more years and accommodate a total of 106,000 burials.
Thirty-four veterans groups volunteer for services. Every seventh Thursday
members of American Legion Post 548 from Louisville, Ohio, dressed in
black
coats, ties and pants with white belts, gloves and shoulder cords, come to
pay
tribute to fellow veterans.
(AP) The American flag flies at half staff over rows of servicemen's
graves at
the Ohio Western Reserve...
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One crisp spring morning, dozens of mourners for Hale more than filled the
benches inside a stone open-air shelter tucked into a wooded corner.
Several jumped as the seven members of Post 548 fire the first of three
volleys. The shell casings faintly ping and clatter as they landed on the
brick walkway.
"Every time I fire, I say 'This is for you,'" says Navy veteran Dave
Scanlon,
choking up while referring to his father, "Skip," a World War II veteran
who
died in 1999.
Ohio Western Reserve averages 7 1/2 burials a day. The busiest national
cemetery is Riverside National Cemetery, about 60 miles east of Los
Angeles.
It averages about 30 burials, followed by Florida National Cemetery, 50
miles
north of Tampa.
Third busiest is Calverton National Cemetery, about 50 miles east of
Manhattan, although it has handled as many as 55 burials in a day, said
Michael Picerno, director of Calverton National Cemetery in New York.
To accommodate so many burials, hundreds of crypts are preplaced at
Calverton,
then covered with dirt and grass. When it comes time for a burial, the sod
is
cut away, the crypt opened and the casket lowered in.
Six new national cemeteries are under construction under a fiscal year
2008
budget of $167.4 million, triple the previous year. It's the largest
number of
cemeteries constructed at one time.
Despite handling burials at an assembly-line pace, the National Cemetery
Administration has the highest customer satisfaction score of any federal
government agency and any private sector company, according to the
University
of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index. It tops companies such
as
Heinz, Amazon.com, and Hershey's.
"We are ever-conscious of the fact that with each family we get one chance
to
get it right," Tuerk said.
Part of streamlining the process involved holding services at committal
shelters - open-air, gazebo-like structures - instead of graveside.
Calverton
has seven shelters; Western Reserve has two.
After taps, two uniformed members of an Army honor guard, wearing white
gloves, perform the third and final ritual - the folding of the flag. They
make each of the traditional 13 folds with precision as mourners look on
in
silence.
The flag was presented to Hale's wife of 36 years. She was seated on a
bench
in the front row.
"I feel so blessed to be an American and that America has furnished
something
like this for our soldiers. It gives you such a wonderful feeling," she
said.
"I feel proud."
A cemetery employee politely asked the mourners to leave the shelter so
the
next service could begin.
Men and women in dark suits and dresses, some holding hands or with arms
around one another for comfort, climbed into their Fords and Buicks and
slowly
drove away.
---
On the Net:
Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery:
http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/ohiowesternreserve.asp
Calverton National Cemetery: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/calverton.asp
2008 Associated Press.
2008 IAC Search & Media.
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