Veterans Cemetery becomes part of national legacy

Thanks to a local Boy Scout Eagle project, the gravestones at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery on Espanola Road will soon become part of a national legacy project helping educate the public about the sacrifices people have made in serving the United States.

Eagle candidate John Demke of Scout Troop 321, Moran Prairie, led a group of 30-35 other volunteers on a clear, unusually calm day for the West Plains Saturday, May 21, in walking the cemetery's rows of markers, as well as those interred in columbarium niches, and taking photos of what they saw. The photos were then uploaded to the app "Billions of Graves," where they will be cataloged for future use.

In the six years since it opened, over 3,200 veterans, along with spouses and in some cases their children, have been buried in the cemetery located just west of Medical Lake, cemetery director Rudy Lopez said. Most of the veterans served in conflicts such as World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the two wars in Iraq and the current war in Afghanistan, with a number of them killed in action.

"This is a very solemn facility," Lopez told the group during an orientation presentation. "We treat it as a shrine."

Lopez said Washington has the 12th largest population of veterans in the U.S., with most living along the Interstate 5 corridor in Western Washington. To qualify to build a national cemetery, at least 180,000 veterans need to reside within the area of the proposed facility, one of the reasons Tahoma National Cemetery was built and opened in 1997 in Kent under the shadow of Mount Rainier.

Lopez said efforts to locate a national cemetery in Eastern Washington uncovered only about 140,000 veterans living in the Eastern Washington/North Idaho region. Several years ago, however, the National Cemetery Administration, which is under the auspices of the Veterans Administration, began providing funding to help states build veterans cemeteries in the national model.

Planning for the cemetery west of Medical Lake began in 2007, with the state donating 120 acres of Department of Natural Resources land and the VA contributing an $8.8 million grant. The cemetery opened in May 2010.

"We do the exact same thing that they do in a national cemetery," Lopez said in describing the qualifications for veterans to be interred and the ceremonial process involved.

Demke said he heard about the National Legacy Initiative and the Billions of Graves app from his mother, who took part in a similar project. Both of his grandfathers served in the military, and he felt undertaking the cataloging project was a way of giving back to them and others.

"I wanted to be able to honor the veterans that have fallen," Demke said. "I liked the idea and just kind of went with it. I looked around for awhile, found out about this cemetery and got partnered with it."

Tim Cobb, a volunteer and bishop at Demke's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Moran Prairie Ward, said the church had buried a congregation member at the Veterans Cemetery a couple months ago.

"They're just kind-hearted, a good staff," Cobb said of the experience. "What a great thing."

Lopez said the facility has been busy, interring 595 remains in 2015. They are currently working on a $2.5 million expansion of the facility.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].