Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is getting some much-needed relief this fall. A 164-acre annex to the cemetery will open at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in September to allow nearly 160,000 new burials — something Fort Rosecrans has long run out of space to accommodate. “It’s going to be a great project,” said Kirk Leopard, director of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. “It’s going to provide burials for the next 50-60 years for the San Diego area.” With Fort Rosecrans only accepting cremations currently, the opening of the Miramar annex will allow for casketed burials in San Diego for local veterans for the first time since 1966. The only option presently for casketed burials is at Riverside National Cemetery. “You don’t expect your 80-year-old grandmother to have to drive all the way up to Riverside just to visit a gravesite,” Leopard said. “That’s not the service we want to provide. Now we’ll be centrally located at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. “That’s a much better option for the San Diego community.” The Department of Veterans Affairs will break ground on the Miramar site Jan. 30. The annex will use nearly half of the vacant land in the area. “It’s a great site for us,” Leopard said. “It was the best we could do in this area. We don’t have a lot of land in San Diego County, and for them to allow us to use that area as a national cemetery was amazing.” In addition to accepting new interments, the Miramar annex will accommodate those who wish to move their loved ones from Riverside if they provide for the transportation costs. Leopard views this as a nice alternative. “We get stories all the time from widows who are holding on to their husbands’ ashes because they want them buried at Miramar or people who are concerned because they are getting up in age and they don’t want to go to Riverside,” Leopard said. As for Fort Rosecrans itself, the opening of the Miramar annex does not mean the acceptance of future ashes will stop soon in Point Loma. Leopard said he expects the national cemetery, which just exceeded 100,000 graves last month, will still have room for ashes until 2017 or 2018. “We’re still going to operate Fort Rosecrans. It’s not going to close,” Leopard said. Leopard said a 4,200-column niche expansion project will begin at the cemetery next month. Two other expansion projects have been approved and a third is pending approval. “Point Loma and Fort Rosecrans is a very popular location for people,” Leopard said. “It’s really a part of the community.” The cemetery was also just approved for a second raise and realignment project, the last of two projects to primp the grounds. The project will have millions of dollars in economic impact locally.
