Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Rules and luck govern
burials at PunchbowlQuestion: I read in the papers that the late Congresswoman Patsy Mink was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. I am a veteran and was told many years ago that there are no more burial plots in Punchbowl -- only boxes in walls (columbarium niches) to hold your ashes. That is why, I understand, the state built a veteran's cemetery in Kaneohe. Will you offer an explanation for the congresswoman's burial? Is there a policy for VIPs? Can one "reserve" a plot?
Answer: You can't "reserve" a plot, although some veterans have a pre-1973 contract that is honored, allowing them two plots.
There is a policy (Secretary of Defense memo to Congress dated May 6, 1986) allowing for burial with military honors -- at either national or private cemeteries -- for Congressional representatives still in office at the time of their deaths, but not one that gives them special privileges to be buried in a national cemetery, said Gene Castagnetti, director of the Punchbowl cemetery, which is under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
In Mink's case, no special treatment was given, he said.
DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Friends and family of late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink gathered at Punchbowl earlier this month for her burial. A plot at the cemetery was relinquished by another family two days after her death, enabling her burial there.
She first had to be eligible to be buried at Punchbowl, which she was through her husband, John, who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he said. She was not eligible for burial in a national cemetery simply for being a member of Congress.
Then, coincidentally, a plot was "relinquished" just two days after her death by another family, Castagnetti said. Unless something like that happens -- and timing is everything, since there can be no waiting list -- Punchbowl's 34,000 grave sites are either filled or accounted for by contract, according to Castagnetti.
(There also are about 145 columbarium niches currently available out of 5,000 at Punchbowl, but about 4,300 more are scheduled to be added beginning next month.)
That's the simple, short version of the policies governing burial at Punchbowl and other national cemeteries. Castagnetti explained the background on how the policies were set:
The Department of the Army, which ran the national cemetery system prior to 1973, provided two side-by-side plots for each veteran's family -- one for the vet and one for a dependent spouse or dependent child.
In 1973, the Army transferred the national cemeteries over to the VA. The Army grandfathered in the two-plot promise to families who already had a loved one buried in one of the plots and the VA honored those contracts, but again, only if someone was buried in the first plot prior to 1973, Castagnetti said.
There currently are about 450 plots "that we have to honor under the Army system," he said.
(After it took over, the VA began allowing only one plot per family. But with the bodies buried horizontally at different depths, that allows for more than one family member to be buried in a plot, Castagnetti explained.)
The list of grandfathered contracts is reexamined every six to 12 months, and the families contacted to verify whether they wish to have two plots.
It sometimes happens that a family will give up a plot -- a veteran gets a divorce, for example, or a family decides it wants to disinter a loved one's remains for reburial on the mainland -- allowing another family access to a Punchbowl burial.
"There is no sequence of time when that happens," Castagnetti said.
About 50 percent of the time, people contacted will willingly relinquish the second plot, he said. "And this is how we were able to obtain a space for Patsy Mink," he said.
A similar situation came up for Sgt. James Anderson, who was declared missing 50 years ago during the Korean War, and whose remains were finally identified this year by the Army's Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam.
His family asked if he could be buried at Punchbowl and were told basically that "we'll have to see what the mail brings in this week," Castagnetti said. Shortly after, another veteran relinquished a plot and Anderson's family was able to be accommodated. His remains were buried Oct. 15 at Punchbowl.
In order to ensure fairness, Castagnetti said the state's 13 mortuaries are notified, on a "rotational basis -- first come, first served, just like we did with Mrs. Mink," when a grave site does become available for another eligible person.
Although "casketed burial space is practically zero" at Punchbowl, Castagnetti said there is space available at the state's veterans cemeteries.
In order to meet the needs of veterans, he said, the VA provided half the matching funds for the state veterans cemetery in Kaneohe, which has 78,000 grave sites available. The VA also provided money for veterans cemeteries on the neighbor islands.
Those cemeteries "should certainly be able to accommodate the 116,000 veterans (living) in the state of Hawaii, he said.
Sign follow-up
Regarding the sign that was damaged during work on the University Avenue project (Kokua Line, Oct. 7), the Board of Water Supply had said it had no reports of any damaged signs. The complainant followed up by giving an exact location, at 2403 University Ave., which allowed an inspector to locate the downed sign.A BWS spokeswoman said he found the metal post was rusted through at the concrete anchor block. The city Department of Facility Maintenance was contacted to follow up in replacing the sign, she said.
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