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Punchbowl Cemetery Will Add Space for 17,000 More Veterans PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Honolulu Advertiser reported that the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is embarking on a $4 million construction program to create more than 17,000 additional urn storage niches. The new niches should handle the demand over the next 10 to 15 years to enshrine urns containing the ashes of cremated World War II and other veterans.

According to cemetary director Gene Castagnetti, American veterans are dying at a rate of about 1,900 a day, which translates into 50 to 60 requests per month to place urns into columbarium niches at the cemetery.

Castagnetti was quoted as saying, "The one question I am asked the most often when I meet with various veterans associations is, 'Do you have a place for me?' "We want to give them the sense of confidence and reassurance that we will be able to take care of them at the time of their death."

Although there are about 33,500 in-ground sites at the cemetery, there is no more room for new casketed burials. Castagnetti said only 818 of the 9,568 columbarium niches are available, which means the Punchbowl cemetery would run out of niches in a year if the expansion project didn't begin soon.

Work, or what Castagnetti calls a "fast-track" construction project, began in July 2010. This will create 778 new niches by October 15 to store urns at the cemetery's Columbarium Court Numbers 6 and 7. After those niches are completed, future expansion plans call for five more columbarium courts, which will then create 17,000 additional urn storage niches and extending the life of Punchbowl by another 10 to 15 years.

As a result of the speeded-up construction plan, the two columbariums (where the fast-track work will take place) will be closed temporarily to visitors due to safety concerns.

Visitors will be directed to a chapel on the cemetery grounds that will contain a list of names of all of those whose ashes are entombed in the columbarium walls that are temporarily off limits. Space will be set aside at the chapel for floral offerings.

While construction is under way from July 13th through October 15th, no new urns will be placed into the remaining niches at the columbarium. Instead, families or funeral homes will be asked to hold the urns until the construction project is completed. Each of the niches is 10 inches high, 14 inches wide and 20 inches deep.

The cemetery gets requests from U.S. veterans and their families from around the world who want their remains to be enshrined at Punchbowl.

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