National cemetery readies for influx

DAYTON (AP) -- One of Ohio's two national cemeteries is getting a $1 million restoration to straighten tombstones and install new crypts for the influx of World War II veterans and spouses expected to be buried at the 137-year-old cemetery through 2020. About 10 percent of veterans, their spouses and dependent children choose to be buried in national cemeteries, according the National Cemetery Administration. The Dayton National Cemetery, one of the oldest, is being restored along with many of the other 120 such cemeteries across the nation to handle the expected increase in burials.
The Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman in Northeast Ohio opened in 2000.
About 1,300 to 1,500 World War II veterans are dying each day around the country and veterans' burials are expected to peak at more than 676,000 in 2008, the cemetery administration said. When Dayton cemetery director Patrick Lovett began his job last year, he said all 40,000 markers needed straightening and cleaning.
"They were all jagged," Lovett said. "You couldn't see a straight line."
Some stones already have been repositioned upright and hosed with a cleaning solution, and new grass is being planted to meet federal requirements for only 5 percent weed content in national cemeteries.
The renovations also include preventing a "washboarding effect," Lovett said. When the ground is disturbed by cemetery burials, it tends to sink around the grave site, forming small mounds between graves and making the grounds look like a washboard.
The surface of the grounds needs to be dug up, compacted and reseeded to smooth out the mounds, he said.
Special markers for the cemetery's five recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest military award, are another of Lovett's plans. He also intends to restore a tunnel that linked the cemetery to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center next door.
Soldiers who died in the hospital used to be taken to the cemetery through the tunnel, but it was sealed off with limestone years ago and is overgrown with ivy. Lovett hopes donations will pay for opening the tunnel and restoring its doors.
Since 2001, Congress has appropriated $35 million for the National Cemetery Administration's effort to restore the cemeteries, administration spokesman Mike Nacincik said Tuesday.
Because of the project, World War II and future veterans might not have to worry that their tombstones will tilt, Lovett said.
The Dayton cemetery is installing several thousand pre-set, side-by-side, double-depth concrete lawn crypts for future burials of veterans and their spouses or dependents.
As the vaults are installed, they will be covered with about two feet of ground that will be seeded with grass.