Maintaining Honor:National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii

Kevin Burrows, Regional Editor

Cemetery caretaker Richard Varble mows the Bermudagrass using a Toro 21?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'??? self-propelled mower. Mowing operations are performed weekly. The eye-catching color of Bougainvillea edges the lawn. Photos by James Messner

Located just north of downtown Honolulu, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is visited by millions of people each year. Also known as the ?EUR??,,????'??Punchbowl,?EUR??,,????'?? it lies in the middle of Puowaina Crater, an extinct volcano, and is often described as one of the most beautiful and moving historic monuments in the nation.

Origins

Roughly translated, ?EUR??,,????'??Puowaina?EUR??,,????'?? means ?EUR??,,????'??Consecrated Hill?EUR??,,????'?? or ?EUR??,,????'??Hill of Sacrifice.?EUR??,,????'?? Historians say the first known use of the site was as an altar where early Hawaiians offered human sacrifices to their gods.

History

The Punchbowl?EUR??,,????'???s history as a national memorial began in the early 1940s, when Congress appropriated funds to establish a small cemetery in Hawaii.

The cemetery was officially dedicated on September 2, 1949 on the 4th anniversary of V-J Day. Today the cemetery is a memorial to the sacrifice made by all the men and women in the United States Armed Services. It serves as the final resting place for more than 44,200 U.S. war veterans and family members.

Cemetery caretaker Phillip Griep performs burial operations. He is tamping the soil to prevent soil sinkage after the sod is replaced.

Caretaker Foreman

National Memorial Cemetery Caretaker Foreman, Larry Thornton, is originally from West Virginia, grew up as an Air Force dependent and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1969. After 20 years in the Corps, he retired to Hawaii and began working at Punchbowl in 1991. He is the only known Certified Grounds Technician by the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) in Memorial Service Network 5 (MSN V) and National Cemetery Administration, trained as a Certified Foreman.

Landscaping Crew

Thornton heads a crew of 19 employees that maintains the grounds. A team of ten mows the turf, trims the trees, and prepares the plots for internment. Others perform upkeep on buildings, do seasonal plantings, regulate irrigation, apply herbicides, and keep machinery running.

Cemetery gardener Jeffrey Bernardino sprays herbicide for weed control of purple nutsedge. Around $12,000 are spent on herbicides each year. Ranging from selective to non-selective herbicides, the crew also use growth regulators in certain areas to curtail plant growth and cut down on the need for pruning.

Turf

Although the cemetery has roughly 112 total acres of grounds, only 65 are developed and manicured by Thornton?EUR??,,????'???s team. The rest is made up of crater-rimmed slopes that need very little attention. The turf is composed of common Bermudagrass, and is maintained at a height of one and one-half half inches to make it easier for the crew to contend with the thousands of granite markers and memorial bases. Fertilization must be performed to keep the grounds a perfect shade of green. ?EUR??,,????'??Recent soil testing recommended a need for 26 lbs per month of nitrogen be used to fertilize the turf,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton.

International exposure dictates that the maintenance of the national shrine be of the highest caliber possible. ?EUR??,,????'??Through training with the PGMS, we have come up with a maintenance plan that has enabled our turf to become stronger and, through proper maintenance, easier to care for,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton.

Cemetery Caretakers Louis Dugatto (left) and Johnnie McCoy (right) remove a grave marker during internment operations, in which an urn is buried underneath the marker.

Equipment

Maintaining 65 acres of manicured landscape requires a great deal of equipment. To keep the turf in tip-top shape they employ six 21-inch Toro push mowers and three Toro Groundsmasters, (each with an 11 yard hopper for grass clipping and leaves). Also, to keep the 32,000 granite markers looking neat and clean, the crew utilizes 10 string-trimmers and 10 curb edgers. To haul larger loads, the staff has a few pickup trucks, as well as Jacobsen and Cushman utility vehicles outfitted with dump beds.

Chemicals

While the Punchbowl employs a certified chemical applicator, they are very adamant about limiting spraying on site. ?EUR??,,????'??Not only must we look out for our workers, but also the many visitors that come though here,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton.

In the past they have had problems with Gypsy moths on monkeypod trees, but were able to deal with them with selective spot treatments. ?EUR??,,????'??Pacific golden plover birds actually take care of a lot of the bugs,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton. The birds, which breed in Alaska and winter in Hawaii, ?EUR??,,????'??arrive at exactly the same time every year, and eat so much that they gain about 7 to 8 ounces,?EUR??,,????'?? he said.

Backhoe operator Richard Cabatic and spotter Louis Dugatto prepare a gravesite for an internment.

Trees

With almost 600 trees mapped out by geo-grid design ranging from Chinese banyans, jacaranda, paperbark, and palm trees, the grounds staff regularly removes any dead limbs and performs minor trimming. ?EUR??,,????'??The small stuff is taken care of in house, but anything that would become a hazard is contracted out,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton.

Irrigation

The grounds are equipped with a state-of-the-art Rainmaster computer system that controls the watering, a weather station that reformulates run-times depending on rainfall and weather conditions, 2,882 irrigation heads, 100 I-25 rotors, and some Rainbird and Toro popups. The operation, while quite extensive, is also environmentally friendly. ?EUR??,,????'??Irrigation run-times of 30 minutes are broken into three increments of around 10 minutes each to prevent runoff from going down the street,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton.

A cemetery caretaker performs tree trimming and removes water sprouts from a Chinese banyan tree. Currently one of the biggest problems facing the crew is an insect infestation in these trees. A number of companies have come to the Punchbowl to try to eliminate the pest, and while they have all been unsuccessful, a group of tree experts will be in Honolulu for a conference at the end of the summer. Thornton has already recruited them to lend their advice on controlling the still unidentified insect.

A Grand Mission

?EUR??,,????'??The main mission of the landscaping crew at the Punchbowl is to impart a feeling of dignity and permanence to those buried here,?EUR??,,????'?? said Thornton. ?EUR??,,????'??The satisfaction of working in a national shrine such as this cannot be compared with any other job. On a daily basis, you are interacting with the next of kin of deceased veterans, some who gave their all so we can enjoy our freedoms. The feeling you get when someone compliments you and your men on the quality of care that is shown in the maintenance of the graves of a loved one is almost impossible to describe.?EUR??,,????'??

The Honolulu Memorial

The Honolulu Memorial (center) was erected by the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1964 and dedicated in 1966. It honors the sacrifices and achievements of American Armed Forces in the Pacific during WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Chinese banyan trees flank the cemetery entrance and line Mall Drive.

The Honolulu Memorial sits high on the wall of the crater overlooking the cemetery. It consists of a non sectarian chapel, two map galleries, a monumental staircase leading from the crater floor to the Court of Honor, and 10 Courts of the Missing. The names of 28,788 military personnel missing in action or lost at sea in the Pacific conflicts are listed on marble slabs that flank the Memorial?EUR??,,????'???s grand stone staircase.

On the front of the tower that houses the chapel is a 30-foot female figure known as ?EUR??,,????'??Columbia.?EUR??,,????'?? She stands on the symbolic prow of a U.S. Navy carrier with a laurel branch in her left hand.

The dedication stone at the base of the staircase is engraved with the following words:

?EUR??,,????'??IN THESE GARDENS ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY AND WHOSE EARTHLY RESTING PLACE IS KNOWN ONLY TO GOD?EUR??,,????'??

Lady Columbia, standing on the bow of an aircraft carrier, symbolizes all grieving mothers and looks out on the cemetery that fills the 112-acre Punchbowl Crater. The view from the Punchbowl encompasses the city of Honolulu from Waikiki and Diamond Head to Pearl Harbor.

At the top of the staircase in the Court of Honor stands ?EUR??,,????'??Columbia.?EUR??,,????'?? The inscription below the statue, taken from Abraham Lincoln?EUR??,,????'???s letter to Mrs. Bixby, reads:

?EUR??,,????'??THE SOLEMN PRIDE THAT MUST BE YOURS TO HAVE LAID SO COSTLY A SACRIFICE UPON THE ALTAR OF FREEDOM?EUR??,,????'??