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Alaska Legion members build own vet cemetery

BETHEL, Alaska — In the middle of a dirt field in this western Alaska hub lies a grave, a wooden cross at its head, a small American flag at the foot.

This is the inaugural plot of the new Veterans Memorial Cemetery, which will serve the Kuskokwim River town of Bethel and 56 largely Yup’ik Eskimo villages. Members of the local American Legion post spearheaded construction of the two-acre site in a community effort being hailed by national Legion officials as the only one of its kind among nearly 15,000 posts.

“As far as we know, it’s unprecedented that a post would go out and raise their own funds,” said Alec Petkoff, a Legion spokesman in Washington, D.C. “They were able to make sure they got the cemetery they wanted and one that their veterans wanted.”

The project is almost as old as the 30-member George H. Hohman Jr. Post 10, named after a former soldier and Alaska legislator who died last year. Hohman, whose ashes are buried at the new cemetery, was the only Alaska state lawmaker ever to be convicted of bribery. He was locally revered for bringing millions of public dollars to rural communities for education and other benefits.

The post was resurrected in 2004, a decade after the previous one was dismantled. Led by Sam Shields, it rallied locals to help build the cemetery on land provided by the city.

“This is what the soldiers deserve,” Shields said. “If you see all the sweat, tears and blood just to get into the military, and the sacrifice, you know they deserve this, a nice place to be buried.”

A formal opening ceremony will be held Saturday at the cemetery, where all branches of the military will be represented.

The cemetery’s entrance will eventually be marked with a sign that reads “You are not forgotten” in English and Yup’ik. Near the burial grounds will be a gazebo, barbecue grills and benches — a setting post officials envision for remembrance feasts so important to many Alaska Natives.

“We want this to be a living cemetery, not a sad cemetery,” said Shields, a former Army drill sergeant at Fort Benning, Ga.

Besides the land, the city provided $60,000 for the project. With the main cemetery in the community of 6,000 quickly running out of room, there also are plans to build an adjacent civilian cemetery.

For the veterans cemetery, residents volunteered their muscles and local contractors chipped in on company time. It took countless hours to clear the site of tundra, level the land, transport the soil and build an access road.

Other posts have relied on full government funding to create state veterans memorial cemeteries, or have lobbied Congress to build national cemeteries, Petkoff said.

The post was wise to focus on a community project instead of trying to create a state veterans cemetery, said Jerry Beale of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which provided $10,000 for the project.

A state veterans cemetery, of which there are none in Alaska, would be subject to rigorous national standards, such as not allowing picnics on the grounds, Beale said. Also, only National Guard members activated for federal service during war or a domestic emergency, or who serve at least 20 years, are eligible for burial in a state or national cemetery.

“Many Guard members there will not be deployed or spend that much time in the Guard,” Beale said. “This meets the needs of the local community.”

The work began before dozens of National Guard reservists from the region were deployed to Iraq and Kuwait last year. Post officials were careful to keep the cemetery project low-key until they shipped out.

“We didn’t want to give them the mental image,” post vice commander Sam Blankenship said. There have been no casualties from Bethel or its surrounding communities.

In November, the post’s namesake and second vice commander died of cancer at age 74. Half of Hohman’s ashes were buried three days later with the help of a diamond drill used to penetrate the frozen ground as a heavy snow fell. The other half of the ashes were to be scattered over mountains east of Bethel.

Hohman’s many fans packed a memorial ceremony held at the town’s cultural center. After Hohman’s 1981 conviction led to his expulsion from the Legislature, Bethel residents sued the Senate for depriving them of his representation. Hohman went on to serve more than a year in prison, then returned to Bethel, where he later worked as the town’s city manager.

“[Hohman] paid his dues in many, many ways,” City Councilman David Trantham said.