Final resting place for vets
Gallup City Council paving way for veteran cemetary allocation

Local veterans salute at dusk at Hillcrest Cemetery on Wednesday evening. The Veteran's Cemetery will soon see an expansion. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — All local veteran leaders want is a veterans’ cemetery that people in Gallup can be proud to call their own.

They don’t have that yet but a decision by the Gallup City Council on Tuesday brings that dream a lot closer to happening.

The council approved new policies at Hillcrest Cemetery, the only cemetery in Gallup that has a veterans’ section, that requires grave sites in that section to be uniform and have similar decorations. The council resolution also expands the current veterans’ section at Hillcrest, providing space for dozens of more graves for local veterans and their spouses.

Local veterans groups have been complaining for years about the condition of the current veteran’s cemetery.

What’s going on now, said Bill Martinez, the first vice commander of the local American Legion, is a “desecration.”

There is no uniformity in the grave sites, families use different decorations and one family even put a small picket fence around their site.

What local veteran groups want is something akin to what occurs at other national and state veteran cemeteries — grave sites laid out evenly with a similarity in decorations.

“We want something nice and respectful for those who have served their country,” he said.

City officials evidently agreed, unanimously approving the expansion and the new guidelines.

R. David Pederson, Gallup’s city attorney, said the expansion will provide as many as 200 more grave sites for veterans and their spouses in three extra rows adjacent to the area already used as a veteran’s cemetery.

The grave sites in this area will only be allowed to have three recognized federal veterans grave markers — a white marble tombstone, a bronze plaque or a white religious symbol.

City council members questioned whether the city could force families who have loved ones in the current veterans’ cemetery to go along with the guidelines as well.

Pederson said it may be possible for the city to enact such a law, but city officials have decided to go another route and hope that once families in the current area see how good the new portion looks, they will want to be part of the new look.

Joe Zecca, chairman of the Gallup-McKinley County Veteran’s Committee, said new guidelines is something his committee has also been discussing for some time.

“I am not sure what we can or can’t do about getting other families (in the current cemetery) to comply with the guidelines,” he said, adding that the committee may decide to go to the families and ask them to voluntarily agree to go along with the new program.

Since city officials have indicated they don’t want to go the legal route, persuasion may be the only answer but even that may cause some problems with the older grave sites, said Pederson.

“We may have problems finding family members for some sites or figuring out which member of the family will be the one to talk to,” he said.

Veteran officials are planning to meet with city officials on Wednesday and the new guidelines is expected to be one of the topics that will be discussed.

The main reason for the meeting, however, said Zecca is to plan for the annual Memorial Day activities on May 25 at the cemetery.

The schedule now calls for the Knights of Columbus to have their ceremony at 8 a.m., followed an hour later by the VFW ceremony. The American Legion will take part in that one but will also sponsor another ceremony at 11 a.m. at the City Plaza. A parade is scheduled to start at the cemetery at the conclusion of the VFW ceremony and go to the plaza in time for the American Legion event.

Martinez said he expected between 600 and 1,000 to attend the ceremony in the Plaza.

“It keeps getting bigger and bigger every year,” he said.