THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408300350
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Half a world away from Okinawa, at a Navy installation in Chesapeake, a flag is raised and lowered each summer Sunday to honor a teenage sailor who died in the grueling World War II battle.
It's no individual act of heroism that brought George Cecil Stewart the honor. Stewart, who went by Cecil, was among 50,000 Allied soldiers killed before the Japanese island finally fell in June 1945.
So why Stewart's grave is singled out for the honor at Northwest Naval Security Group Activity has spawned many stories, one of which is so often repeated it's become folklore there.
No one's sure how the story started; probably the facts just got a little mixed up over the years.
But many sailors stationed at Northwest think Stewart is so honored because his family made a gift to the Navy of the 3,700 acres on which the base is located. Showing the colors on the veteran's grave is the least the Navy can do for such a generous gesture, they'll tell you.
``Oh, please, get the story straight,'' said Gladys Stewart, wife of Cecil's older brother Lewis. ``That's not what happened at all.''
The real story, in fact, is a heartwarming one.
Cecil, a 19-year-old sailor raised on a farm in Chesapeake's Northwest area long before the Navy moved there, died with 36 shipmates in a torpedo attack on the Marathon, a small attack transport ship. He was buried in Okinawa.
Four years later, in 1949, his remains were returned to Northwest and buried in the family cemetery.
``Casteen Place,'' as the cemetery was called, was on property owned by his uncle Clarence Casteen. Clarence and Cecil's mother, Elizabeth, were siblings who inherited land granted to the family from the king of England and passed down through generations of Casteens.
Members of the family had a homestead on land that is now the Northwest naval installation.
Elizabeth married Albert Stewart and they had 12 children, including Cecil and Lewis.
In 1952, the federal government decided to build a naval radio station in rural Northwest. Agents bought more than 3,000 acres from at least a dozen families in the community, including Elizabeth Stewart and Clarence Casteen.
Most of the families moved a few miles away from the new radio station and their old homes were razed.
``Mrs. Stewart was so full of sadness, but she never complained. She missed the old home place so much,'' Gladys said. Her mother-in-law died 20 years ago.
Sometime before 1970, no one is exactly sure when, the summer flag-raising tradition was begun. In April 1970, Capt. R.E. Melick, base commander, dedicated a campground on the heavily wooded installation to Cecil Stewart.
``From what we know, the captain found out there was a World War II Navy veteran buried on the base and he wanted to do something to recognize that, something to show the family that he appreciated all of us,'' said Lewis Stewart, 71.
Thus began the tradition of raising and lowering a flag over Cecil's grave every Sunday between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The Chief Petty Officers Association is sponsoring a ceremony at the gravesite Tuesday marking the end of this summer season.
There will be a Navy band, a color guard and a reception for about 50 of Cecil's relatives.
``I really appreciate what they do. The family appreciates it, too,'' said Lewis Stewart.
Cecil Stewart was a farmboy who loved to hunt and fish with his older brother. The two young men, along with a third brother, all served in the Pacific during the same two-year period in the mid-1940s.
Lewis and Gladys Stewart describe young Cecil as ``handsome, witty, tall and slender, full of life,'' and someone who ``would think it was nice, but who would never expect all this fanfare if he were alive to see it today.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Sailors at the Northwest Naval Security Group Activity installation
in Chesapeake raise a flag over the grave of Cecil Stewart, left.
Stewart died in World War II and is buried in a family cemetery on
the property.
by CNB