Veterans celebrated at a ‘place of honor and respect’
Speakers, veterans impressed with ceremony at Mare Island Cemetery
Glenn Powers says that a person has two deaths in their lives — when they physically have their last breath and when people completely forget about them.
“Thanks to the recent work on this cemetery, I would say that this community is all about that second death never occurring with these veterans,” Powers, the Veteran and Deputy Under Secretary of the National Cemetery Administration, said while pointing toward the Mare Island Cemetery in a Veterans Day speech on Thursday.
Nearly 200 people celebrated Mare Island Cemetery — the oldest naval cemetery on the West Coast, and a National Historic Landmark. It has three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients: James Cooney, Alexander Parker and William Halford.
“All across this country today there are communities like Vallejo that are commemorating this special day where we commemorate the service and sacrifice of veterans and it’s clear that Vallejo is at the top for doing this,” Powers said. “So I’m honored to be here today. It’s an impressive event.”
Veterans of Foreign Wars Junior Vice-Commander Duane Sarmiento thanked all the veterans past and present.
“Our motto is in the Veterans of Foreign Wars is everything we do, we do for veterans,” said Sarmiento “That’s not just a tagline or a slogan — that is what we live by. As we celebrate Veterans Day today we must remember the sacrifice of the 19 million Americans that have served our country. We live in a country where we can do whatever we want, whenever we want within limitations of course. We can’t ignore that those 19 million Americans gave us that right to do so.”
Although it looks nice now, the cemetery has gone through a major restoration in recent years. Many trees that once surrounded the cemetery have been removed, as well as a portion of the white picket fence that surrounded it, although portions of the fence will be put back after the drainage system is repaired.
In August, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration will formally begin the process of transferring the 165-year-old cemetery from the City of Vallejo.
When former Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan began his term in the city, one of the first phone calls he received was from U.S. Navy retired captain Ralph Parrott. Parrott was concerned about the terrible conditions of the Mare Island Cemetery.
“He told me his displeasure with the cemetery and then said, ‘How are we going to fix that?’” Sampayan said. “Those were literally his first words to me after he introduced himself. So without Raph Parrott’s tenacity, and I do mean tenacity, the cemetery wouldn’t look like it does today.”
Later at a Veterans Day event at City Hall, Parrott showed his love for everyone who helped get the cemetery back to a respectable condition.
“Now it’s a place of honor and respect,” Parrott said. “This transformative process was made possible by a dedicated group of citizens, political leaders, media and veterans. It is my honor and duty to tell this story before the people gathered here today on Veterans Day.”
Also speaking during the event was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy (Environment) Karnig Ohannsssian, as well as Touro University Cief Executive Officer Shelley Berkley.
Thompson was on hand as well, saying the cemetery is “special” to him.
“It really did need to be elevated and it needed to be turned over the Veterans Association,” Thompson said. “In order to do that we found out it was going to take an act of congress. The legislation that I carried was successful in the house, but not so in the senate. But there is always another way to do things. So we put that bill into the National Defense Authorization and we got it passed.”
Thompson also urged people at the event to show their support for veterans, not just today, but every day.
“Being a veteran doesn’t end when their war ends,” Thompson said. “So our support for them shouldn’t end either. I always like to quote John Kennedy who said, ‘Mankind must put an end to wars, before wars put an end to mankind.’ I still believe in that.”