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Making it right: Ceremony gives honorable burial to soldiers’ remains
Specially created cemetery grounds impress governor and project leader
By Bill HessHerald/Review
Published: Sunday, May 17, 2009 2:16 AM MST
SIERRA VISTA — A fallen comrade is never left behind.
And honoring veterans is part of being an American, Fort Huachuca Chaplain (Col.) Thomas Day said Saturday.
Joe Joaquin, of the Tohono O’odham Nation, echoed that philosophy and prayed for two of the 57 remains of soldiers who served in the Arizona Territory and who died from the 1860s through the 1880s.
While it is not known what nation the two sets of the remains are from, Joaquin he felt it was his responsibility and honor to bless them.
“We all fall under our creator,” said the former Marine as he held up eagle feathers and waved them as he prayed in his native language.
Saturday was the culmination of a long process for reburial of the 57 sets of soldiers’ remains, along with the remains of three children and an Army civilian employee, who were exhumed more than two years ago under roads in downtown Tucson. The nearly 1,800 sets of remains were exhumed to make room for a new Pima County and Tucson court complex.
Roger Anyon, who leads that Pima County’s cultural resources office, led the effort in Tucson.
He was surprised by how Sierra Vista area residents decided the city was going to be the location where the remains discovered in the military cemetery portion of the larger Tucson cemetery would be buried.
He also was surprised how everyone did more than expected.
“It’s a testimony to the city of Sierra Vista,” Anyon said. “I had no idea what would happen. This is far beyond anything I imagined.”
The community, its residents, business leaders and the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services decided the final resting place for the remains, some of which had been moved a couple of other times, would be located at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery and include a cemetery-within-a-cemetery, a Victorian-era style burial ground to create a feeling of the time period of the late 1800s.
The area impressed Gov. Jan Brewer, who read a proclamation designating Saturday as Historical Solider Memorial Cemetery Remembrance Day.
Saying what was being done to honor the soldiers of the past was wonderful and dignified, she said the new and final resting place for the 61 sets of remains “is an honorable and beautiful place.”
Quoting George Washington, the governor said the nation’s first president remarked that those who would serve in the nation’s military would do so as long as they knew their service would be honored, especially if they gave their lives.
What the state-operated Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery is doing agrees with Washington’s view, providing a place of honor for veterans of yesterday, today and tomorrow, Brewer said.
After the ceremony attended by nearly 800 people, Brewer said she knows the final resting ground for the exhumed remains is still a work in progress. But, she said, once it is complete, there will be few state-operated cemeteries that will be able to match its beauty.
Larry McKim, president of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery Foundation, said the generosity of the people of Sierra Vista, who donated more than $85,000 for the project, and the volunteer work by the members of the Southeastern Arizona Contractors Association cannot be understated.
“SACA was the center part of the work,” he said after the ceremony concluded.
Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Strain also read a proclamation declaring Saturday Historic Soldiers Relocation Project Day.
Before he read the proclamation, Strain looked at the flag-draped caskets and the four other coffins and seemed to be addressing those within them as he promised “you will not be forgotten.”
For Frank Salvas Sr., director of State Cemetery Grants Service for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, everyone involved in the reburial of the historic soldiers were personally “honoring and respecting them.”
Moving the remains from Tucson to Sierra Vista on Friday was a process requiring much coordination over a long period of time.
Dan Ferguson, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, was one of the people involved in that process. He said many veteran organizations played a part and the involvement of the active-duty military on Fort Huachuca was instrumental in making Friday’s and Saturday’s events successful.
Army Brig. Gen. LaWarren Patterson was to have spoke at the ceremony, but he could not because he had to represent the Army at another military burial in northern California.
Col. William Scott, the Network Enterprise Technology Command’s chief of staff, stood in for the deputy commander of the NETCOM.
As the reburial of the 57 soldiers and four others from the 1800s took place in Sierra Vista, Patterson was at the funeral of a soldier who was killed in Iraq on May 2, Scott said.
The connection of past soldiers and a soldier of today shows the Army’s dedication to honoring those who serve, the colonel said.
Honors are given those who serve in the nation’s military, no matter if it is now or in the past, “is a living legacy,” Scott said.
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at .