Veterans’ cemetery 60 pct complete

The CNMI Veterans Cemetery in Marpi is over 60-percent complete and the contractor is working double time to finish construction this month in time for Memorial Day celebrations in late May.

Military and Veterans Affairs Office executive director Martin Sablan relayed the update on the cemetery’s construction during the ceremony honoring returning veterans last Wednesday at the American Memorial Park.

Sablan said the MVAO, along with contractor Maeda Pacific Corp., are still hopeful that the resting place for the islands’ war veterans would be opened in time for the Memorial Day celebration. The two sides met again last Wednesday to discuss the final stages of the project.

The MVAO executive director said the original number of graves available for war veterans and their family members has also doubled from 108 to 216 due to improvement of locations and constructions of the gravesites.

The U.S. National Cemetery, however, still needs to approve the changes since they provided funding for the site.

Sablan said the cemetery is offering the gravesites for war veterans of the CNMI and their family members for free. He said the graves are free for the veterans and their dependents below 18 years of age.

In an early interview, Maeda Pacific president Thomas J. Nielsen said the project already completed the parking areas, gutters, and the interment building.

The interment building is similar to a chapel but since the CNMI has diverse religious denominations, Nielsen said the building would be a generic one, where all veterans of different religious backgrounds could be accommodated.

The Veterans’ Cemetery had a groundbreaking ceremony in September last year.

In 2005 MVAO deputy executive officer Ruth Coleman said the office received a grant of nearly $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the realization of the “long overdue” veterans cemetery on Saipan.

U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary R. James Nicholson said last year that the grant is a way of partnering with the CNMI for a project to honor the commitments and the sacrifices of the men and women who served in uniform for the country.

“This partnership provides a final resting place for Commonwealth veterans that meets high standards of a national shrine,” Nicholson said.

Coleman said the CNMI veterans would be able to receive military honors in their home state—the very state they defended while serving the country. “This is a tribute to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to defend freedom,” she said.