Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is undergoing a $4.3 million facelift with the help of Congress. Over the next year, nearly 7,000 headstones in a 13-acre section of the cemetery will be removed, washed and realigned — all part of a larger project to primp the grounds. “We’re actually striving to make all our national cemeteries into national shrines to honor our veterans’ service to the country,” said cemetery director Kirk Leopard. “This is just one more step in that direction.” Workers have started the first of two projects with a $4.3 million assist from the economic stimulus program Congress passed this year. The goal of these projects is help the cemetery meet federal standards and achieve the national shrine goals. “That’s our commitment to our veterans; to provide a national cemetery that is a fitting resting place for them and their dependents,” Leopard said. “We honor those who served us.” The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) defines a national shrine as a place of honor and memory that declares to the visitor or family who views it that, within its majestic setting, each and every veteran may find a sense of serenity, historic sacrifice and nobility of purpose. Each visitor should depart feeling that the grounds, the gravesite and the environs of the national cemetery are a beautiful and awe-inspiring tribute to those who gave much to preserve the nation’s freedom and way of life, according to the VA definition. Leopard said this labor-intensive portion of the project will take 12 months and that the entire process within the 77.5-acre cemetery could be completed in about five years. Through 2008, the cemetery housed 96,626 interments. “Eventually, we’re going to have all the headstones raised and realigned and they’re going to be in perfect order, both vertically and horizontally,” Leopard said. “Whenever we get done, it’s going to be, from a cemeterian’s point of view, as close to perfect as you can get.” Leopard said the cemetery’s new process of setting headstones will prevent them from tilting or leaning for more than 100 years. “They’re putting in a concrete base to support the headstones,” Leopard said. “The headstones actually sit on a concrete box and they have denatured granite to support them. So there’s no way for them to sink into the ground or to move forward or backward; they’ll stay exactly where we put them.” In addition to the headstone project, the cemetery’s irrigation system is being renovated and all of its turf is being replaced. Leopard said the cemetery currently has seven types of turf when it should have just one. “When people come to Fort Rosecrans, they look and they see the ocean and they see the bay and it’s beautiful,” Leopard said, “and they don’t see the same kind of things that we see as cemetery workers.” Leopard, a 21-year Navy veteran, has been director at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery since 2007. He views these recent improvements to the cemetery as a commitment into the future to provide a service to veterans. “I see us fulfilling our commitment to veterans to provide a place that will honor their service in the best possible way,” Leopard said. “We want them to know that their efforts did not go unnoticed. We take care of them not only today, not only tomorrow, but 150 years from now we’ll still be taking care of them.” For more information, call (619) 553-2084, or visit http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/ftrosecrans.asp.