THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505200102
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
A traditional Memorial Day Observance will be held at the Naval Medical Center to honor the 150 men from the United States and around the world interred in a cemetery on the hospital grounds.
The May 29 service will be held at 9 a.m. at the cemetery, which dates back to 1838. The program is sponsored by the Tidewater Area Council of the Fleet Reserve Association and the Ladies Auxiliary, Branch and Unit 40, Chesapeake.
Capt. William R. Klemm, commanding officer of the Naval Shipyard and a 25-year veteran of the Navy, will speak.
Among program participants will be the I.C. Norcom High School Band, the Naval Medical Center Color Guard, Webelo Cub Scout Pack 399 led by Pat Von Hayden and the Atlantic Fleet Band bugler.
The exact age of the hospital cemetery is unknown. It has tombstones covering almost 150 years, dating from 1838 to 1986.
The earliest marked grave is that of George Butler, a sailor who fell to his death in an accident aboard the USS Constitution on Aug. 1, 1838. Other early graves contain the remains of sailors from the USS Delaware and the original USS Constellation.
Unknown dead are interred in 113 graves. They include 45 unknown Confederate soldiers and four members of the Imperial Russian Navy.
Small flags from many nations placed on the graves for Memorial Day mark the cemetery as an international site.
A number of victims of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1855 included a French Navy medical officer who was aboard the French ship, Le Chimiere. Five Brazilian Navy members died from beriberi during the Jamestown Exposition.
Japanese characters inscribed the tombstone of Totaro Minami. Yee Len and Chang Chung, two Chinese sailors, rest nearby.
Wounded Spanish prisoners from the Spanish-American War died at the hospital and were buried here.
Following tradition, the cemetery contains graves of sailors from both sides even during World War I. Three German sailors from that war are buried here.
A cairn in the cemetery surmounted by a stone pillar stands as a memorial to all the men lost aboard the USS Cumberland and USS Congress. These ships were sunk by the CSS Virginia, formerly US frigate Merrimac, during the first day of the maiden voyage of the ironclad ship.
The Memorial Day observance at the hospital cemetery has a long tradition, but Dan Gay of the hospital's public affairs office said he could not find records to determine how many years the formal ceremony has been held.
This year's chairman is Flo-Marie Holcombe of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Fleet Reserve Association.
The formal memorial service will be conducted by James Scarbo, president, and Ed Maring, secretary, of the Fleet Reserve Association and Dorothy Hickman, regional president of the auxiliary. MEMO: [For related stories, see microfilm of The Currents for this date.]
KEYWORDS: MEMORIAL DAY by CNB