CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Miles S. Okamura, left, cemetery operations manager for the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery, Edward R. Cruickshank, Director for the Department of Defense's Office of Veterans Services and Herring Kalua Jr., general labor supervisor, walk through the grounds at Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe.

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Help coming for
vets’ burials

$751,000 will help preserve and
refurbish the 14-year-old
Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe

Violet Kaleiwahea visits her husband every Friday at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe.

"It is so beautiful and peaceful," said Kaleiwahea, 76. "There are always so many flowers. As you drive into the cemetery you can see them all the way down."

So it's understandable why Kaleiwahea welcomes news that the Legislature this year appropriated $751,000 to repair some of the deteriorating conditions in the 14-year-old, 123-acre graveyard.

Two years ago the conditions at the state's only veteran's cemetery on Oahu were so bad that the ground was sinking in some parts of the graveyard.

"It was so bad," Kaleiwahea said, "you could almost see the casket."

Kaleiwahea said luckily the plot of her husband, James Lincoln Kaleiwahea, wasn't affected by the sinking ground. James Kaleiwahea, who served in the Army during World War II, was buried there six years ago.

Edward Cruickshank, director of the state Office of Veterans Services which operates the Kaneohe facility, said his priority after he was hired in May was not to find fault, but to fix the problems. If they don't, "it will cost us much more later to get it done," he added.

He got all of the money he asked from lawmakers, including $430,000 to remove a hill that is putting pressure on a columbarium, resulting in cracks in the structure.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Kalua shows a gravesite that is slightly sinking. He said sinking gravesites can be repaired in about two to six hours.

Another $50,000 appropriated this year will pay for borings to see if a stream is causing some of the sinking of the gravesites.

"Before we start work on the columbarium we want to make there is no water under the columbarium," said Cruickshank.

The exploratory borings will determine if inadequate drainage from Kawa Stream is causing graves to sink. The hill in front of the columbarium is eroding, exposing sprinkler lines and also uprooting trees.

There also is $74,000 approved this session to fix the road to the columbarium and $10,000 to repair the graveyard's sprinkler system.

Cruickshank said only 369 niches in the columbarium, which can hold 2,400 urns, have been used.

Lawmakers also approved $187,450 for casket liners, which prevent the ground from sinking when caskets deteriorate and collapse.

The federal government paid for the construction of the Kaneohe cemetery, which opened in 1991, but the state is required to pay for maintenance and repairs.

There are 6,300 people buried in the cemetery, which can accommodate 76,000.

Cruickshank's office also will receive $30,000 for each of the next two years to publish three newsletters. Part of the funds will be used to update the veteran's office mailing list.

There are 14,500 names in the veteran's office database, which hasn't been purged since 1998, Cruickshank said. "We will have to clear the database since we don't know how accurate it is and how many people have died or moved."

Cruickshank said there are now 114,000 veterans in the state and with the activation of many Hawaii Army National Guard and Army Reservists for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, this number will increase by more than 3,000 new veterans.

"The harsh reality is some will not be coming home alive," Cruickshank added. "We will owe it to them and to their loved ones to provide a resting place that honors who gave their lives protecting us in the war against terrorism.

"We are also indebted to the many who served in previous conflicts to keep us safe."

First Lt. Naina Hoe, a 1995 Kamehameha Schools graduate who was killed Jan. 22 in Iraq, by a sniper's bullet, was buried Feb. 8 at the Kaneohe cemetery.