Newest cemetery sees increase in burials as more veterans are laid to rest

When Fort Jackson National Cemetery opened in 2009, Joan Van Schaik and her husband, Douglas, went to visit because it was new and close to their Wildewood home.

Joan was struck by the cemetery’s beauty, was honored to stand among the long lines of identical white headstones and felt compelled to contribute in some way. So she volunteered to work at the front desk, mostly comforting spouses of departed veterans and counseling couples making plans to be buried there.

Before her own parents, Melvin Weingarth and his wife, Irma, passed away in 2014 and 2013, respectively, Van Schaik persuaded them to be buried at Fort Jackson as well. Her father, who fought in the Pacific in World War II with the 41st Infantry “Jungleers” Division, was battling cancer at the time.

Van Shaik recalled saying to him, “This must be very difficult.”

Weingarth replied, “This isn’t tough. New Guinea was tough.”

Van Shaik’s parents are two of a growing number of veterans being buried in South Carolina’s newest veterans cemetery.

Last year, Fort Jackson National Cemetery, at the intersection of Percival and Clemson roads, interred 661 veterans and their spouses. This year, the cemetery likely will bury 880, according to cemetery director Gene Linxwiler. That’s an increase of about 25 percent.

All of the state’s veterans cemeteries provide interment free of charge for a veteran, spouse and a dependent or disabled child. The graves will always be cared for, and there’s a growing awareness about the cemetery among South Carolina veterans.

“People know we’re here now,” Linxwiler said.

Part of the reason for the cemetery’s earlier anonymity, he said, is that South Carolina hasn’t allowed interstate signs advertising national cemeteries. S.C. Department of Transportation officials had ruled that the cemeteries don’t generate enough traffic, according to the agency’s formula, to warrant an interstate sign, he said.

“It’s the only state that doesn’t offer that recognition,” Linxwiler said.

The Transporation Department said Friday it would start putting up the signs after The State newspaper inquired about the practice.

“We issued guidance yesterday (May 21) directing the installation of the signs,” said an email attributed to deputy secretary for engineering Christy A. Hall. “We appreciate and honor our brave service men and women and their families.”

“It breaks my heart”

Fort Jackson joins Beaufort National Cemetery and Florence National Cemetery, both of which were established during the Civil War, and the state-run M.J. “Dolly” Cooper Veterans Cemetery in Anderson, which opened in 2007.

Those also are experiencing increases in burials, although more modest, in large part because Vietnam War-era veterans are reaching old age, their directors said.

Carolyn Howard, director of Florence National Cemetery, said the number of burials there is expected to increase to 340 this year from 300 last year, most of them Korea and Vietnam veterans.

“It breaks my heart to see them go,” Howard said.

Jeff Fultz, director of the Dolly Cooper cemetery, said that many Vietnam veterans seems to being dying younger than did their counterparts from World War II and Korea.

“Agent Orange, things like that,” he said, referring to a controversial chemical used in herbicidal warfare. “They’re having a lot of health issues.”

More burials are occurring because of deaths of Iraq and Afghanistan service members who were killed in combat as well as from suicides committed in theater or after they return home.

“We’ve had some very young people come in here,” Fultz said.

Fort Jackson cares for the remains of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans Army Specialist Lashawn Evans, Army Specialist Abraham S. Wheeler, Marine Staff Sgt. Jay T. Collado and South Carolina National Guard Sgt. John David Meador II.

The dependent children of active duty troops and young veterans also are eligible for interment.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had several of those as well,” Linxwiler said.

Graves for 100 years

Despite the spike in burials at Fort Jackson, the cemetery has enough real estate to operate for decades.

There are 3,640 graves there and the current phase of the cemetery has enough room for 5,378 more.

By contrast, Beaufort has more than 19,000 interments; Florence about 12,000.

The post cemetery near Columbia covers 82 acres. It can expand another 503 acres, stretching roughly from Clemson Road to Spears Creek Church Road.

“We expect to have gravesites 100 years from now,” Linxwiler said.

In Beaufort and Florence, the grave of an unknown private killed in 1865 is maintained with the same care as a recently deceased major general.

“We’re still taking care of his grave like he died yesterday,” Linxwiler said.

With the exception of a few veterans in the oldest cemeteries, all veterans, regardless of rank or service, receive the same white marble headstones with rounded tops used since the Civil War.

For volunteer Van Schaik, that is part of the cemetery’s beauty. It makes no distinction by rank, race, color, national origin or religion.

“We’re all the same here,” she said. “After all the hubbub, we’re all Americans.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2015 at 9:42 PM.