Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery sits high above San Diego on Point Loma. It is a military cemetery under the care of the Department of Veterans Affairs and covers 77 acres. About 95,000 American Armed Forces veterans are interred at the cemetery.
The graves in the Fort Rosecrans date to the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846, during the Mexican-American War. They continue through the Iraq wars. Fort Rosecrans is closed to additional casket burials due to a lack of space. The only exceptions are when a spouse is already buried at a grave site.
Most of the markers at the cemetery are the traditional white slabs with the brief biographical info about the dead. Many of the backs of the stones contain the name of a deceased spouse who is interred in the same grave site.
Scattered about the older part of cemetery are non-conforming monuments to various groups of fallen soldiers and sailors.
In 1905 The USS Bennington was preparing to leave on the rescue mission of another naval vessel, the USS Wyoming, which was disabled and adrift at sea, when a boiler exploded and killed 62 members of its crew. This monument, a 60-foot obelisk, erected in 1908, marks the graves of those killed in that explosion. The Bennington never returned to service.
I don't know anything about Howard Eugene Sneed, but he among the veterans whose cremains are interred in the walls that have been built on the perimeter of the cemetery. Only cremains are now accepted for internment at Fort Rosecrans.
This tree sits at a high spot on the windward side of the cemetery overlooking the Pacific. It leans away from the prevailing winds.
Most of the men and women buried in Fort Rosecrans did not die in battle, but instead returned from their service and resumed their ordinary lives. War is a poor way to solve our disputes, but sometimes it is the only way to stop tyranny. It is ordinary men and women who, as Lincoln said, give the last full measure of devotion.
The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
The brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
- Theodore O'Hara, excerpt from
The Bivouac of the Dead
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery sits high above San Diego on Point Loma. It is a military cemetery under the care of the Department of Veterans Affairs and covers 77 acres. About 95,000 American Armed Forces veterans are interred at the cemetery.
The graves in the Fort Rosecrans date to the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846, during the Mexican-American War. They continue through the Iraq wars. Fort Rosecrans is closed to additional casket burials due to a lack of space. The only exceptions are when a spouse is already buried at a grave site.
Most of the markers at the cemetery are the traditional white slabs with the brief biographical info about the dead. Many of the backs of the stones contain the name of a deceased spouse who is interred in the same grave site.
Scattered about the older part of cemetery are non-conforming monuments to various groups of fallen soldiers and sailors.
In 1905 The USS Bennington was preparing to leave on the rescue mission of another naval vessel, the USS Wyoming, which was disabled and adrift at sea, when a boiler exploded and killed 62 members of its crew. This monument, a 60-foot obelisk, erected in 1908, marks the graves of those killed in that explosion. The Bennington never returned to service.
I don't know anything about Howard Eugene Sneed, but he among the veterans whose cremains are interred in the walls that have been built on the perimeter of the cemetery. Only cremains are now accepted for internment at Fort Rosecrans.
This tree sits at a high spot on the windward side of the cemetery overlooking the Pacific. It leans away from the prevailing winds.
Most of the men and women buried in Fort Rosecrans did not die in battle, but instead returned from their service and resumed their ordinary lives. War is a poor way to solve our disputes, but sometimes it is the only way to stop tyranny. It is ordinary men and women who, as Lincoln said, give the last full measure of devotion.
The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
The brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
- Theodore O'Hara, excerpt from The Bivouac of the Dead
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
7 comments:
Someday I will put up a post about the insane struggle my mother and her siblings had to go through to get grandpa into the ground with proper ceremony.
I guess sometimes three years in a POW camp is not all it's cracked up to be...
very sad post, but it's nice you were able to find a Sneed and think nice thoughts about him.
Incredible that you found a Sneed since (I assume) that's your blog name, not your "real" name. Wow.
It's sobering, visiting a military cemetery, isn't it? I pay regular visits to Arlington. it's a respectful place, a powerful place, but not healing in any way as some cemeteries are.
Nice pics, thanks.
Nice Post, Sneed.
My ancestor survived the Civil War but while returning home to Florida on foot, stopped at a farmhouse in Virginia to ask for food and coffee. He took a drink of his coffee, then became ill and died. He was traveling with another soldier, and after his first sip of coffee, he told him "Don't drink the coffee - it's poisoned."
Nice post.....and don't mind Kurt.
Kurt,
What brand of coffee was that? Maxwell House?
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