Veterans cemeteries
expanding statewide

Plans should meet
veterans' burial requests 'through
the critical years of the
World War II population'

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

State officials are waiting for the grass to take hold before officially opening Hawaii's newest veterans' cemetery on Lanai.

Dedicated in the spring of 1997, the 282-plot Lanai Veterans Cemetery is one of seven veteran cemeteries run by three neighbor island counties.

Oahu has two cemeteries for veterans -- the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific administered by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs -- and the Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe managed by the state.

Both state and federal administrators of Hawaii's veterans cemeteries believe these facilities will be able to handle the anticipated needs of the veterans and their families.

Walter Ozawa, director of the state Office of Veterans' Services, said his office has estimated that there are 112,000 veterans and their family members living here. "But not all of them will be requesting space."

More than 92,000 grave plots for casket burials, ground niches for cremated remains and columbariums are projected at the state and county veterans cemeteries.

The largest is the state run-cemetery, which takes up 123 acres, but only half is used for burials in Kaneohe.

The projected capacity is 45,298 casket grave sites, 37,060 ground niches for cremated remains and 3,840 columbariums.

At the federal veterans cemetery in Punchbowl crater, Gene Castagnetti, cemetery director, said there is no room for casket burials unless a veteran has a member of his or her family already buried there.

He said, however, there is an adequate number of columbariums for cremated remains.

There are now 34,000 grave sites, 5,000 cremation niches with another 5,000 columbarium above the ground cremation niches planned.

"We have enough columbarium niches to carry us into the year 2002," Castagnetti said.

Plans to build new columbariums should extend the life of the cemetery for the next 10 to 12 years, Castagnetti said, and that "takes us through the critical years of the World War II population."

The 50-year-old five-acre Kauai Veterans Cemetery was recently expanded with the acquisition of two acres of adjacent property in Hanapepe.

Seven more acres were recently approved to be transferred from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

State planners have projected that the Kauai cemetery will hold 1,500 grave sites, 314 niches and 45 columbarium spaces.

On Molokai, 1,070 spaces are pro-ue8 quote We have enough columbarium niches to carry us into the year 2002.

Gene Castagnetti

Cemetery director at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl

jected at the one-acre Hoolehua Veterans Cemetery, which opened in 1950. This will mean 803 burial plots, 101 grave niches and 107 columbarium spaces.

Molokai is estimated to have about 650 veterans.

Plans are under way to expand the columbariums at the seven-acre Maui Veterans Cemetery at Makawao, which started operations in 1951.

Projections call for 10,894 graves, 2,179 ground niches and 1,453 columbariums. Maui has about 8,816 veterans.

A West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Kona was dedicated on Veterans Day last November on 10 acres of land near the Queen Kaahumanu Highway. Nearly, 10,000 grave sites are planned along with 50 columbariums.

The long-awaited Kona cemetery gives Big Island veterans and their families a choice.

The only other veterans cemeteries were located a hundred miles away in Hilo on the other side of the island.

Currently, East Hawaii I or the Hilo I 2.5-acre veterans cemetery -- the state's oldest veterans cemetery, begun in 1938 -- is filled to capacity. There are 1,636 burial plots there.

Seven acres are being planned to be added to East Hawaii II or Hilo II veterans cemetery, bringing its projected number of grave sites to 13,000. The current seven-acre site was opened in 1980.

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Star-Bulletin
Memorial Day services at the National Memorial Cemetery
of the Pacific at Punchbowl will begin at 8:45 a.m. Monday.

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There’s still time to
donate a flower lei, plan to
attend Memorial Day service

Students from Waiau Elementary
are learning about Memorial Day

By Star-Bulletin staff

More than 650 Waiau Elementary School students were to visit the National Cemetery of the Pacific this morning to learn about Memorial Day from 14 Japanese-American veterans of the famed 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Gene Castagnetti, Punchbowl cemetery director, said the nisei veterans will be stationed at various grave sites in the crater and explain the significance of the coming weekend's observance to the schoolchildren.

The observance will begin at Punchbowl at 6 p.m. Sunday, when 500 to 600 Vietnam War veterans will attend the annual Vietnam candlelight service. Rear Adm. Dan McKinnon will be the featured speaker.

The service will end with the missing man formation put on by Army helicopters and the singing of "Taps" by soloist Karen Canesco.

Punchbowl ceremony

Mayor Jeremy Harris will be the featured speaker at the annual Memorial Day service beginning at 8:45 a.m. Monday at Punchbowl.

The service will include a 21-gun salute with cannon and the traditional missing man flyover by four F-15 Hawaii Air National Guard jet fighters. Music will be provided by the Royal Hawaiian Band and Our Savior Lutheran Choir.

Junior ROTC cadets from Campbell, Kaiser and Leilehua high schools will post the 50 state flags and Army troops will sound taps and fire a rifle salute.

TheBus will provide five shuttle buses from the bus stop at Alapai and Hotel streets from 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Destination signs will read "Special" and a placard in the windshield will read "Punchbowl."

As buses are filled immediately following the ceremony, they will return to Hotel and Alapai. Regular fares, bus passes and transfers will be used. Free parking will be available on the top deck of the city parking garage at Beretania and Alapai streets.

Those who bring their vehicles to the Punchbowl ceremony are asked not to activate vehicle alarm systems.

Cannon fire will set off vehicle alarms within the cemetery.

Other ceremonies

At 8 a.m. Monday at Kamehameha and Pali highways, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3824 and Post 3927 will conduct another Memorial Day ceremony.

Col. Michael Olsen, acting commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe, will be guest speaker. Junior Air Force ROTC cadets from Kailua High School will provide the rifle firing detail.

Also, on Monday at 11 a.m., Pearl Harbor Submarine Base will hold its annual ceremony with Rear Adm. Al Konetzni, commander of the Pacific Fleet's Submarine Force, as the principal speaker.

At 1 p.m. the governor's annual Memorial Day ceremony will be held at the Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe. Speakers include Gov. Ben Cayetano, Sen. Daniel Inouye and Adm. Joseph Prueher, Pacific Forces commander.

Memorial Day leis

Meanwhile, the goal remains to gather 50,000 fresh floral or ti leaf leis for the mayor's Memorial Day Service at Punchbowl.

Flowers for leis will be collected on neighbor islands by counselors from the state Office of Veterans Services and flown to Honolulu free by Aloha Airlines. Oahu civil defense volunteers will unload the leis and place them in refrigerated containers donated by Matson Navigation Co. Army National Guard troops will truck containers from the airport to Punchbowl.

On Sunday, hundreds of Cub, Boy, Explorer and Girl scouts will place the leis and flags at the veterans' 34,000 graves and 5,000 cremation niches at Punchbowl, beginning at 1 p.m. with a memorial service.

Donated leis will be picked up at most Oahu schools or may be taken by donors to participating parks and fire stations.

For lei drop-off locations at public schools, call 586-3230.

If you would like to donate flowers or like to sew lei, call the city Senior Citizens Section, 973-7262.

Parking bans

To ease traffic congestion this weekend, the city Department of Transportation Services temporarily instituted parking bans near several Honolulu cemeteries.

Parking won't be permitted on Puowaina Drive between Hookui Street and the gates to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific or on Hookui Street 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Monday.

Nor will parking be permitted on these streets: Apio Lane; Robinson Lane; Nuuanu Avenue, ewa side between Robinson Lane and Judd Street; Craigside Place, mauka side between Nuuanu Avenue and the driveway into Nuuanu Memorial Park; 22nd Avenue, ewa side, 100 feet in both directions from the driveway of Diamond Head Memorial Park; and East Manoa Road, Diamond Head side between the makai apex of the triangle to the gates of the old Chinese Cemetery.