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Veterans Cemetery may be completed by May
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Posted on Mar 06 2006
The CNMI Veterans Cemetery in Marpi may be completed sooner than expected, with officials aiming for a May opening instead of September.
Maeda Pacific Corp. president Thomas J. Nielsen said the project is already more than 40-percent complete, including 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 will be a generic one, where all veterans of different religious backgrounds could be accommodated.
The Veterans Cemetery had a groundbreaking ceremony in late September last year.
Nielsen said they are going to try to complete the project just in time for the Memorial Day celebration in May.
The contractor said there are at least 500 graves allocated for CNMI veterans and he is hoping to allocate 500 more sometime in the future.
Military Veterans Affairs Office special assistant Martin C. Sablan said he is impressed with how the construction project is progressing.
“It would be nice if the project is completed for the Memorial Day,” he said.
Last year then MVAO executive officer Ruth Coleman said her 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.
