Volunteers Do Honor to Veterans Cemetery

It has taken 119 years, but the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood finally has a nice fence around it and a formal entrance gate--thanks to a local group of volunteers embarrassed by its shabby look in the past.

The Veterans Park committee spent 10 years raising the $2 million needed for the 7,200-foot-long wrought-iron fence, the new entryway and other improvements that were dedicated Monday as an early Memorial Day gift to veterans.

Perhaps embarrassed itself by the locals’ do-it-yourself salvage effort, the Veterans Administration is authorizing up to $14 million more for upgrades at the 546-acre burial ground at the corner of Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards.

That money, officials say, will pay for the repaving of streets and curbs inside the cemetery, new turf, a state-of-the-art irrigation system, and the raising and leveling of grave markers that have sunk over the years.

Those admiring the new fence and the gate at Sepulveda Boulevard and Constitution Avenue said their goal is to turn the Westside grounds into “the Arlington Cemetery of the West.” And to drive home their point, they ended their dedication ceremony by sprinkling soil brought in from Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery as they planted a tree next to the new gate.

“The federal government responds to community leverage,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who was among those taking part in the ceremony.

The wrought-iron enclosure, anchored with decorative concrete columns, replaces a rusty chain-link fence that delineated the National Cemetery grounds. The new entry gate was constructed where a crumbling brick guardhouse stood for decades.

Other improvements include the refurbishing of the Spanish American War Memorial at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue and new landscaping around the edges of the cemetery grounds.

More than 600 jacaranda, camphor, magnolia, pepper and palm trees have been planted along streets adjoining the cemetery and the next-door VA Medical Center grounds. New cobblestone surfaces and jacaranda trees have been placed along the center divider of Wilshire Boulevard between Veteran Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard; dusk-to-dawn lighting will soon be installed there as well, officials said.

Improvements will be made on visitor reflection areas that include a rose garden and a hillside overlook. Also to be installed is a computerized locater by which visitors can find the grave of a veteran by name. Those improvements, financed by the volunteer group, are expected to be completed by the end of next year, said Susan C. Young, executive director of the Brentwood-based Veterans Park group.

Financing for the work has mainly come from private sources. Primary contributions were made by the Ahmanson, Oppenheimer and Weingart foundations, the Getty Trust and former Northrop CEO Tom Jones, said William Belding, a Venice lawyer and former Navy SEAL who is president of Veterans Park.

Belding said his group has pressed for conversion of VA land west of the cemetery entrance and just west of the San Diego Freeway into a park that eventually can be used for an expansion of the cemetery. That effort so far has been unsuccessful.

That property--now used for such things as VA warehouses and laundry facilities, “is an eyesore and an insult” to veterans and to the community, Belding said. “We’ve literally fought in Congress over a long-term use plan for that land,” he said.

Nonetheless, the cemetery project has turned into “a model of how to refurbish an urban area that has been neglected” by combining private and public sector resources, said Tustin City Councilman Thomas Saltarelli, who is incoming president of the Veterans Park group.

Caltrans executive Robert Sassaman, whose agency contributed $250,000 to the project, said eight state, local and federal agencies have contributed so far.

Upcoming federal allocations include $8 million for new curbing and roadways through the burial grounds, a new $2-million irrigation system and $750,000 worth of new turf and other projects, said William L. Livingston, director of the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Work has begun on repositioning grave markers that have sunk into the ground over the years, Livingston said. “We’ve raised and realigned a million pounds of granite so far. I’ve got 31,000 markers to go,” he said.

Since the first burial, that of a Civil War veteran in 1881, about 85,000 war veterans have been interred in the cemetery. All of those graves will be decorated with tiny American flags by Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts on Saturday in preparation for Monday’s Memorial Day holiday.

Although those who have reserved space years ago continue to be buried there, the cemetery is closed to additional graves. A new National Cemetery has been built near Riverside.