**50^TH^ ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE PUNCHBOWL**

## **Roger R. Rapp**

> **Director of Field Operations for the National Cemetery
> Administration**

## **National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, (The Punchbowl), Honolulu, Hawaii**

> September 2, 1999

Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning, and thank you for that kind welcome.
I'm delighted to be here with you. I bring you greetings from the
Honorable Togo D. West, Jr., the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the
Deputy Secretary, the Honorable Hershel Gober.

I would like to thank Cemetery Director Gene Castagnetti and the local
community of veterans and friends of this national cemetery for inviting
me to participate in your program today.

It is indeed an honor to be part of [your]{.underline} program, the
50^th^ Anniversary Commemoration of the National Memorial Cemetery of
the Pacific!

I emphasize that this is [your]{.underline} program. While fifty years
recognizes the time period since the cemetery's dedication on September
2, 1949, this program is about, and for, all of you gathered here in the
audience, as well as others who were not able to attend today, that have
contributed to this national cemetery. All of you and the organizations
you represent have given so much over those years to make this national
cemetery what it is today \-- a national shrine.

On behalf of Secretary West, I convey to all of you the sincere thanks
from all of us in the Department of Veterans Affairs, along with Gene
Castagnetti and his staff.

As one of the three administrations in the Department of Veterans
Affairs, the National Cemetery Administration has as its mission:

# *"To honor vete*rans with a final resting place *and lasting* 

# *memorials that commemorate their service to our Nation."*

With the recent dedication of Saratoga National Cemetery near Albany,
New York, the National Cemetery Administration now has 116 national
cemeteries contributing to that mission everyday.

Our administration's primary responsibilities are two-fold:

One \-- to provide burial space for veterans and eligible family
members, and

Two \-- to maintain our cemeteries as national shrines.

Let me take a few moments to highlight how this national cemetery
contributes to the mission and responsibilities I have just mentioned.

No more symbolic site could be imagined for the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific, located in the Punchbowl Crater. For centuries
the Punchbowl, as it is usually called, has had a deep religious meaning
for the people of Hawaii. Long before the islands were discovered by
explorers from western civilizations, the Punchbowl was known as
"Puowaina" which translates roughly as "Consecrated Hill" or "Hill of
Sacrifice."

Following World War Two, the War Department, on October 13, 1948,
designated this area as the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The new national cemetery would be the final resting place for the
thousands of deceased servicemen kept in Hawaii and thousands more on
the Island of Guam.

Prior to the opening of the cemetery for public burials, remains from
Oahu, Guam, Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Formosa,
prisoner of war camps in Japan, and other locations in the Pacific were
brought to the Punchbowl for interment. These initial interments totaled
nearly 13,000 World War Two dead. The first interment, on January 4,
1949, was the burial of an unknown serviceman killed in the attack on
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Today, there are nearly 40,000 burials
that have occurred here.

The cemetery was opened to the public on the morning of July 19, 1949,
with services for five war dead: an unknown serviceman, two Marines, an
Army lieutenant and one civilian, Ernie Pyle. The remains of Ernest
Taylor Pyle were interred in Section D, Grave 109. As you know, Pyle, a
Navy veteran, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent who was
beloved and admired by American servicemen the world over for his
accurate portrayal of the GI's life under combat conditions.

The American Battle Monuments Commission dedicated a memorial in the
cemetery on May 1, 1966. This memorial is an eloquent and moving tribute
commemorating the lives and deeds of members of the armed forces of the
United States during World War II and the Korean War, who were recorded
as missing, lost, or buried at sea in the Pacific Region. The monumental
stairway leading to the chapel and the mosaic mural maps are bordered by
the "Courts of the Missing" which contain the engraved names of more
than 28,000 servicemen of World War Two, the Korean War and the Vietnam
War. The dedicatory stone, centered at the base of the stairway, is
inscribed :

> "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."

On January 11, 1976, the cemetery was entered on the National Register
of Historic Places under its Hawaiian name, "Puowaina."

The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was the first national
cemetery to place Bicentennial Medal of Honor headstones. This occurred
on May 11, 1976, when 23 of these special monuments were placed on the
gravesites of the recipients. Today, there are such markers headstones
placed at the gravesites of our most highly decorated veterans, thus
providing them "with a final resting place and lasting memorial that
commemorate their service to our Nation." (In addition, 28 Medal of
Honor recipients are identified and highlighted in gold leaf paint in
the Courts of the Missing which is behind us.)

Currently, NCA is working on three significant construction projects
here at the National Memorial of the Pacific. One project, a 1.5 million
dollar columbarium will provide 5,000 columbarium niches. The new
columbarium will extend the active life of the cemetery to the year
2013. The other project is the Crater Rim Stabilization project to
reinforce the lower rim of the crater. This repair will ensure that the
National Memorial of the Pacific is maintained in a manner befitting a
national shrine. The third is the construction of a new administration
building and public information center with a computerized kiosk to
rapidly retrieve gravesite locations.

All of these features I have highlighted contribute to the National
Cemetery Administration's mission and responsibilities, especially the
'"maintaining our cemeteries as national shrines" responsibility. But,
without the volunteer efforts of so many of you and your predecessors,
these features would not have the honorable meaning they enjoy today.

Throughout our system, we have thousands of volunteers contributing.
Last year more than 284,000 volunteer hours were given to help maintain
our cemeteries as national shrines. Many of you here today devoted your
time and are part of that number of hours.

Members of the veterans cemetery support committees, Memorial Day and
Veterans Day planning groups, office workers, garden club members and so
on, support our employee staffs to accommodate the more than fourteen
million (14,000,000) visitors that we had in our national cemeteries
last year.

Here at the Punchbowl, the most visited national cemetery in our system,
Gene Castagnetti and his staff work with veterans groups and community
organizations to attract the public to this national shrine, and when
they get here, to show off what a beautiful place it is.

This is done through numerous ceremonies and activities, such as those
conducted this past year: The 49^th^ Anniversary of the Korean War
Ceremony in June; The American Ex-POW Wreath Laying and POW Medal
Presentation Ceremony in April; The 56^th^ Anniversary of the 442^nd^
Regimental Combat Team Observance in March; The 98^th^ Annual Easter
Sunrise Service held at this site and sponsored by the Hawaii Council of
Churches in April; and, of course, Memorial Day this past May. In
addition, numerous special tours are led by Gene and his staff, and
ceremonies are held for the special memorial plaque dedications placed
on the Memorial Walk \-- most recently the 6^th^ Marine Division
Association's Memorial Plaque Dedication in February. Twenty-five
plaques now line the Memorial Walk on the way to the beautiful overlook
and garden.

With our World War II veterans dying at a rate of over one thousand
(1,000) a day and veterans from the Korean War and Vietnam War also
joining the aging veteran population, it is even more important to keep
that sacred trust of our veterans and their families by providing burial
space and maintaining our cemeteries as national shrines. We will do so
with the continued support of the local veterans, community groups and
individual volunteers.

We now have younger veterans of newer wars: veterans of the Gulf War,
Somalia, Lebanon, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Their faces, still unlined, remind
us that the torch has once again been passed to a new generation of
Americans, as President John F. Kennedy once reminded the world.

And, if history is any guide, we will have more conflicts, and therefore
more veterans, in the 21^st^ century. While we pray that this will not
be the case, our Nation must always remain vigilant.

We have been blessed with countrymen and women \-- from all walks of
life \-- willing to put their personal concerns aside, and give their
all for this great Nation. Men and women who have answered the call to
arms \-- a call that has often led to loneliness, danger, injury and,
for some, even death.

We enjoy the lives we lead today because of many different generations
of young Americans who gave their lives so that all of us could live in
freedom and prosperity.

Our greatest duty to the men and women who have died in service to our
country is to never, ever forget what they have done for all of us \--
and for all Americans to come.

Once again, I want to thank all the volunteers, both past and present,
who over the years have dedicated countless hours of selfless-service to
the National Memorial of the Pacific and the veterans it serves. Your
continued dedication ensures that the National Memorial Cemetery of the
Pacific is and always will be the crown jewel of the National Cemetery
Administration's cemeteries.

May God bless you all and God bless America.