Project finally underway, 20 years after legislation passes
Preliminary work on Interior Alaska’s new veterans cemetery began early last month. But the project is now officially underway, since a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site in Salcha on June 20th.
Crews began clearing the roughly 260-acre site off Johnson Road in early June, after a 20-year effort to build Alaska’s first state-operated veterans cemetery. That began after the Legislature passed a measure calling for the state Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs to “establish and maintain Alaskan veterans' cemeteries.”
Late last month, two former state legislators who cosponsored House Bill 208 in 2007 attended the groundbreaking for the Interior Alaska Veterans Cemetery. One of them was Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.
“ We never, ever dreamed it would take 20 years,” she said. “But one thing I know about veterans and the people that honor veterans is that we never quit. When we start something, when we give our word, when we say we're going to do something, we do not quit, and that's what you're seeing today.”
The other co-sponsor of the 2007 measure was David Guttenberg, who now serves on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly. The former Democratic state legislator said in an interview three years ago that he actually began working on legislation to develop the cemetery in 2005, soon after he learned that his longtime friend and Marine Corps veteran Rick Roethle had died.
“His widow, who was also a retired member of the service, came to me and said ‘Rick wanted to be buried here,’ ” Guttenberg said. “And he couldn’t be buried here because there’s no vet cemetery here,’ ”
State Veterans Affairs Office Director Verdie Bowen told those at the groundbreaking that he had a similar conversation with another veteran from the Interior.
“ When I first took my job, there was a guy from Fairbanks that showed up with a folder in his hand,” Bowen said. “His name was Joe Fields, and in that folder was his plan for a cemetery in Fairbanks. He started this plan back in the early '70s, and he wanted this cemetery. He wanted to be able to be buried close to home. And he wanted something that they could use that was in Fairbanks that provided honor to our veterans that (were) here.”
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan was among the dignitaries invited to speak at the ceremony. He congratulated other local organizers who never wavered in their support for the cemetery, despite several setbacks. Like a proposal in 2013 to build the cemetery in an area off the Steese Highway, and another in 2014 to build one in Fox. Both plans fell through.
“ One thing I love about Fairbanks and North Pole and the Interior,” he said, “is that when the people of this part of our state see an opportunity or see a challenge that relates to our veterans and/or our military, the whole community puts its shoulder into it, and they're relentless.”
Republican Congressman Nick Begich was there, too. And he said the highest praise should go to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
“ That's what we are here to do today -- to dedicate this ground so that we can remember the people who came before us, the people who gave that sacrifice, the people who served our communities,” Begich said.
Bowen, with the State Veterans Affairs Office, says the project should be completed next year. And he expects veterans will be interred there beginning in 2028.
