Making Space for Eternity

Bill Cathcart, an aging veteran of three American wars, wants to be buried alongside his military buddies, those fellow soldiers with whom he shared the most hellish years of his life.

But the 75-year-old former Marine and Army infantryman, who survived World War II, Korea and Vietnam, also prefers a cemetery near his Placerville home, close to his wife and three children.

For years, that dream seemed elusive. The nearest site, the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, is 100 miles away in Gustine. Cathcart and his wife drove there a few times to scope out the place, but he could see in her eyes that it wouldn’t do.

“Being buried among other war veterans is important to me,” he said. “You have this camaraderie from the battlefield that you never lose--even when it comes to the place where you’re going to be buried. But being near my family is important, too.”

Now Cathcart may get his wish.

Responding to a shortage of burial sites for the nation’s 24.4 million veterans, the federal government plans to establish six more national cemeteries by 2005, including one near Sacramento, a short drive from Cathcart’s home.

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs is also providing millions of dollars to establish dozens of state veterans cemeteries. Two are planned in California: near Redding and on the grounds of Ft. Ord in Monterey County.

Federal officials acknowledge that America is running out of space to bury its veterans, who are dying at a greater rate than ever.

Every day, 1,500 American veterans die as the World War II generation ages into its 80s and 90s. Last year 550,000 veterans passed away, and officials expect the number of annual deaths to peak at 620,000 in 2008.

So great is the demand that more than half of the 119 cemeteries run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have run out of space and are turning away disenchanted veterans and their families.

“This has become a national concern,” said Steve Westerfeld, a spokesman for the department. “Our goal is to have 80% of our nation’s veterans living within 75 miles of the nearest national cemetery.”

California is home to about 10% of the nation’s veterans with 560,000 World War II survivors, 400,000 from the Korean War, 800,000 Vietnam veterans and 180,000 from the Persian Gulf War, officials estimate.

The state already has six national cemeteries: in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Francisco, San Bruno and the San Joaquin Valley. But several of them are closed to new burials.

The Riverside National Cemetery is the nation’s busiest, with 7,500 burials last year. “It gets busier every year,” said cemetery director Steve Jorgensen. “In the last nine years we’ve nearly doubled the number of burials. The veterans are dying; there’s no doubt about that.”

At the Riverside cemetery, space isn’t a problem. The site, home to more than 107,000 graves, will soon be expanded to accommodate 1.4 million burial sites and will remain open for at least 60 years.

But the story is different in Northern California, where the space shortage has become dire, veterans officials say.

Both Bay Area sites--the Golden Gate and San Francisco national cemeteries--have been filled for years and will allow interment only for people with a spouse already buried there.

Space is so limited that the cemeteries will no longer accept cremated remains for burial.

The shortage has angered many veterans and their families.

“Families just aren’t willing to accept the fact that we’re closed,” said Robin McCray, a spokesman for both sites. “They blame us. They get belligerent. They say, ‘You mean you can’t even do cremations?’ It’s tough to say no to these old soldiers, because without veterans, there wouldn’t be any America.”

Mike Kilbane, director of cemetery and memorial affairs for the state Department of Veterans Affairs, said the priority for most veterans is a cemetery close to home. “The end user of the cemetery isn’t the decedent but the family,” he said. “And it’s no use to most families to have a cemetery that’s a two-hour drive from where they live.”

It’s a Race Against Time

The effort to increase the number of veterans cemeteries in California has become a race against time. “The World War II veterans are coming along in age,” Kilbane said. “If you were a 17-year-old serving on battleships in Pearl Harbor in 1941, you’re 77 today. And there were a whole truckload of guys older than 17 there.”

In the end, federal and state officials say, providing veterans with a burial spot in a national cemetery is making good on a promise.

“For a veteran, there were a number of things they were told they could look forward to in life--and many, such as health benefits, have been eroded because of money,” Kilbane said. “As they get older, veterans are worried that their final resting place isn’t taken away from them as well.”

America’s national cemetery system was started during the Civil War when Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln to purchase 14 “cemetery grounds.” By 1870, about 300,000 veterans were buried in 73 national cemeteries.

“Many of the first areas were created around the Civil War battlefield areas,” Westerfeld said. “In wartime, they simply didn’t have the means to transport the remains back home.”

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs, which assumed care for most of the nation’s veterans cemeteries in 1973, noticed that many of the sites were not near veteran population centers.

Officials also have begun to revise previous estimates that only 10% of veterans prefer burial in national cemeteries.

“With the transient nature of our society, even many older veterans have left behind their hometowns and family burial plots,” Westerfeld said. “And many Vietnam vets who never considered a family plot are just now thinking about being buried in a national cemetery.”

In two reports to Congress in 1987 and 1994, the agency identified 13 possible locations nationwide for new cemeteries--including the Sacramento area, home to about 400,000 veterans.

Last fall, federal officials visited the area to review nine proposed sites in Yolo, Sacramento, Solano and El Dorado counties--mostly former agricultural and ranch lands of 300 to 500 acres.

After a site is chosen, officials say, they hope to have the state’s newest national cemetery open within five years.

But Molly Wilson says that’s not good enough.

The Shasta County supervisor led a campaign to persuade the federal government to build an additional veterans cemetery in the northernmost part of the state, where veterans and their families must travel several hours to the nearest national cemetery.

“Most people in Washington think Northern California ends at Sacramento; people here were feeling disenfranchised,” she said.

“The veterans are getting older, which means their wives are getting older as well. With cemeteries so far away, what we were telling these women is that it’s nearly impossible to view their husband’s grave again.”

Now Shasta County is among two proposed sites for state-run veterans cemeteries. To be built with federal money, each will be maintained by state and local agencies.

The Shasta County site, on 320 acres of county-owned land, is “surrounded by mountains on three sides,” Wilson said. “This place will rival Washington’s Arlington National in its beauty.”

In talks with area veterans groups, Kilbane said that most aging veterans find the prospect of their eventual deaths more tolerable if they can be buried among their brothers in arms.

“They want to be buried around people who get it, who understand what they gave up when they were young,” he said. “For the World War II veterans, these are people who understand what death is all about. They lived hip deep in it for four years.”

They’re old soldiers like Leo Burke.

“Even if you didn’t know them by name, you knew them. Know what I mean?” asked the 70-year-old veterans leader and American Legion official. “I like to walk around veterans cemeteries just to see who’s there. They’re average Joes just like me. We’re all vets.”

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Running Out of Space

National cemeteries are filling up in California. A seventh cemetery is proposed for the Sacramento area.