Military burials at the state's Fort Stanton Cemetery may be ending. On Nov. 10, the day before Veterans Day, the Museum of New Mexico's Board of Regents voted to close the cemetery to all future burials, said longtime volunteer caretaker Larry Holt of Capitan.
The cemetery, part of Fort Stanton, is under the domain of the Department of Cultural Affairs, which includes the Museum of New Mexico and State Monuments.
"The state fails to recognize they're in the cemetery business," said Holt.
But New Mexico's Secretary of Cultural Affairs, Stuart Ashman, whose agency acquired the 240-acre property several years ago, said New Mexico does not want to be in the veterans cemetery business.
"The monuments interim director thought there were liability issues and some other questions, so he brought it to the attention of the board of regents, because the board of regents is the governing body of the Museum of New Mexico state monuments. They reviewed the matter and they voted to continue the moratorium, to halt the burials for several reasons," said Ashman.
"One of them is that cemetery was not really intended to be a public cemetery. It was a Merchant Marine cemetery. And then later it was expanded to include people that had been connected to the Fort Stanton Hospital that closed in 1954. So that would limit the number of burials there. Then at some point somebody said then veterans should
"When the property was given over to the Department of Cultural Affairs, it was to protect the historic integrity of the property. The 240 acres that compromises the state monument is in the National Register of Historic Places. Using the cemetery as a public cemetery jeopardizes that designation."
Ashman said the other issue is the Fort Stanton Museum and New Mexico are not in the cemetery business.
"And finally there are huge liability issues involved in burials, and also in caretakership of an active cemetery. It's very different taking care of an historic cemetery than it is to caretaker one that has active burials in it."
The president of the board of regents, Karen Durkovich, said Holt was incorrect in stating the board has closed the cemetery to all future burials.
"The board did limit burials to only those individuals who fall within the criteria established by the document creating the cemetery," Durkovich said. "In so doing we are continuing a moratorium already in existence established by the General Services Department of the State of New Mexico. We will continue to honor burials of deceased Merchant Marines, spouses of Merchant Marines, and people associated with Fort Stanton Hospital before its closure."
Holt responded that essentially stops new burials the cemetery.
"Merchant Marine veterans are those that served in a combat area on active duty between 1941 and 1945. If you do the math on them, there's not too many of them left. It's also going to be open to hospital employees that worked there prior to 1954. Well do the math again. There's not very many of those left."
Of the about 1,725 burials at the cemetery since the late 1800s, Holt estimated 250 to 300 have been military internments. The most recent was last weekend.
"We'd go in and fax up a request for a temporary waiver of the moratorium, send up the service record, and nothing was ever denied. Then about two months ago a lady decided she wanted to get her mother-in-law buried out there. Her mother-in-law had been married to a veteran but got divorced, so it really didn't qualify."
The woman however pressed state officials in Santa Fe, "stirring things up," said Holt, who noted the original moratorium was to remain in effect until formalized and standardized procedures were established by the Department of Veterans Services for future military services at the cemetery. Holt said he had been asked to attend a board of regents meeting to provide input on cemetery eligibility rules for burials but was never provided with the date for the meeting. On Nov. 10 the regents spoke.
The last burial at the cemetery was Nov. 13.
"I had received a verbal approval to go ahead with the burial. When I was called Friday morning (Nov. 12), I was told they would like me to call the family and tell that family this person could not be buried out there. I asked them to call the family since I had gotten a verbal approval. And at that time they said 'well just kind of keep this under the carpet and go ahead with this burial.' "
Questioned about the often reference of the cemetery as including the word "military," Ashman said that may be incorrect.
"The military part was the German internment camp. I think, what I've heard here, is one or two of the German prisoners passed away when they where there. So they were buried there. So we really have no control. And at that time it wasn't historically designated. Someone granted that variance in the 1940s."
The moratorium was initially put in place in February 2008, said Bill Taylor, the director of the Property Control Division in the state's General Services Division.
"There was a moratorium for these burials and things at the cemetery. We weren't funded for that, said Taylor. "It's a federal process and it wasn't under our jurisdiction. The concern was this is really a federal cemetery and we wanted the feds to kind of take that responsibility for veterans burials because the state's really not funded for that."
Taylor said the crux of the matter is the federal government should pay for military burials.
Local veterans groups over the years had come together to assist in funding internments.
Holt said when the cabinet secretaries of the Gen-eral Services Department, Department of Veterans Services, Department of Cultural Affairs, Depart-ment of Tourism, and the governor's office discussed the burials in 2008, and the decision was made to put the moratorium in place, waivers were allowed to provide for some internments. Several dozen have taken place since then.
Holt said last week's decision was quite a "Vet-erans Day present" to those who have served their country.
"This closes the cemetery to dependents (spouses) and veterans who have their spouse buried there and a plot reserved for their burial. In addition it reverses letters of authorization from other offices of state government that grant eligibility to veterans and their dependents to be buried at Fort Stanton. Our veterans fought and died to grant to all the freedoms we enjoy today and this is our state's thanks."
The cemetery has been under the authority of a number of state agencies since the federal government deeded the fort to the state in 1953. Hoyt said in the nearly 12 years he has been involved with Fort Stanton's cemetery the property has been under the control of the Depart-ment of Corrections, De-partment of Veterans Services and now the State Monuments Division.
The cemetery would have celebrated 112 years of continuous operations on Dec. 16. The burial grounds were opened by the U.S. Merchant Marine Tubercu-losis Hospital after the fort was closed as an active military post. Today it is part of the Fort Stanton State Monument.
"The cemetery is on the National Register of His-toric Places as a Merchant Marine Cemetery," said Durkovich. "Any other contemporary burials could compromise this status. The Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents is charged with protecting Fort Stanton as an historic cultural resource. This duty is reflected in our (Nov. 10) vote."
Ashman said he is sympathetic over the situation and would welcome a solution that addressed the community's wishes. But he added, the current cemetery property is an historic location.
"He (Holt) could make a proposal to the board of regents for something outside the perimeter of the existing historic cemetery. He can make any kind of proposal he wants. If I were advising him, he would be more likely to be successful if he presented a comprehensive plan that relieved the state of any responsibility and all the state had to do was provide a piece of land."
Ashman said the state has ample property, even adjacent to the current cemetery.
Holt said the state had the opportunity several years ago to expand the cemetery at the expense of the federal government.
"The (New Mexico) Department of Veterans Services started to work to get national grant money from the Department of Veterans Affairs," said Holt. "They spent over $150,000 on architectural plans. And in 2006, after going back and forth between the state and the feds, the feds granted over $3 million to expand and upgrade the cemetery at Fort Stanton."
The offer would have doubled the size of the cemetery to 27 acres.
"This new part of the cemetery, the expansion part, would have been entered through the existing cemetery, preserving the historic integrity of that cemetery and we would not bury any other people in the older part of the cemetery. The state turned down the monies from the grant, of which $1 million was going to be spent to do the restoration of the old (Fort Stanton) administration building for a museum and for the cemetery offices. I was told by the De-partment of Veterans Services that they turned down this money because the government in Santa Fe stated it was not a state responsibility to bury veterans."
Holt made a presentation on the cemetery situation to the Lincoln County Commission Tuesday. A resolution to state officials will be considered by the commission next month.
State Rep. Zach Cook (R-Ruidoso) said he has contacted governor-elect Susana Martinez administration about the situation.
"I was disappointed about the board's decision. I'm trying to find out the new governor's position."
Cook said the members of the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents will likely be changed after the new administration takes office in January.
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