thedrifter
09-14-05, 10:06 AM
Soldiers' cleanup honors the fallen
By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News
September 14, 2005
CHALMETTE, La. — They're already dead here, but that didn't make this mission swinging axes and priming chain saws any less important to these men on this muggy Tuesday.
Some in this cemetery have been dead for close to 200 years. It says so on the headstones.
Celestine Smith of the U.S. Colored Troops is buried here. So is Harrison Henderson.
Nobody in the Colorado National Guard, 2nd Platoon, knows who these men were.
But they know what they were.
"Fallen soldiers," Capt. Shea Simms said quietly.
The 41-year-old is taking a short break from hauling huge trees uprooted by Hurricane Katrina away from the grave markers.
Along with about 20 other men, he's been at it since 8 a.m, sawing trees, clearing branches and trying to restore dignity to this national park so close to the Mississippi River that barge masts can be seen drifting behind the levees.
Simms, with a shaved head beaded with sweat, said clearing Chalmette National Cemetery isn't officially part of the Colorado National Guard's mission to this ravaged parish less than 20 miles outside New Orleans.
The guard, as of Tuesday, had more than 600 deployed to this region and has been assigned to the swampy St. Bernard Parish to clear roads, help with security and, up until Sunday, slog through soggy neighborhoods looking for survivors.
It was that day, while getting a rare hot meal on a nearby Navy ship docked on the Mississippi, that a truck full of troops rumbled past the graveyard. Somebody immediately noticed it was for dead war veterans - mostly for Union soldiers who died in Louisiana during the Civil War.
It's 17.5 acres, and there are more than 15,000 buried here. Not all are Civil War vets, either. There is a smattering from the War of 1812 and a few from Vietnam. More than 6,700 are unknown - their gravesites marked by small concrete stubs with a simple number inscribed on the top.
Cleanup is arduous job
The cemetery is quiet, aside from a chorus of crickets and the rustle of dry leaves amid a rare breeze that can break the damp, gauze-like air.
The silence is smashed when Pfc. Marion Justus revs up a chain saw and begins slicing away thick branches from a giant fallen oak tree. The 39-year-old from Thornton was chosen for chain saw duty because the scuttlebutt was that he had plenty of previous experience back home.
"I cut firewood," he explained from behind a blue surgical mask.
Sgt. Scott Secrist laughed.
The platoon actually began the clearing Monday afternoon, but it quickly became clear this wasn't going to be a one-day operation. National park officials visiting the site to assess the damage thought they might not even be able to get to it for another six to eight months.
It was an arduous process for the platoon, with heat turning their brown shirts dark with sweat. Each solider was careful to lift logs over tombstones - at one point 1st Sgt. Sergio Alvarez apologized to the headstone of J.D. Bennett after the large tree branch he was carrying hit it.
"It's about respect," he said. "It's about taking care of these guys."
Alvarez, 36, of Colorado Springs, admitted it was tiring work and that he wouldn't exactly mind being back at Pikes Peak Community College studying to be a "techno geek."
He said his wife's family can trace its roots back to the Civil War, where they fought for the Confederacy. Alvarez, who emigrated with his parents from Guatemala at the age of 5, said it didn't bother him that the cemetery only featured Union soldiers.
It didn't bother Simms and his long Alabama lineage either.
"I'm in the Union army now," he said.
When they broke for lunch, the soldiers were careful not to lean on the markers - some of which still had waterlines about a quarter of the way up. Large swaths of browning grass were covered in crispy leaves from fallen trees - some so large the trunks on their sides stood taller than a large truck.
Second Lt. Garret Rasnick said it might take a couple of days to clear the cemetery. For these soldiers, there would be no rest until the job was done.
"It's a national cemetery," 1st Sgt. Chris Green said as they began the job Monday afternoon. His voice hitched and his eyes began to water. "It's a good place."
Ellie
By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News
September 14, 2005
CHALMETTE, La. — They're already dead here, but that didn't make this mission swinging axes and priming chain saws any less important to these men on this muggy Tuesday.
Some in this cemetery have been dead for close to 200 years. It says so on the headstones.
Celestine Smith of the U.S. Colored Troops is buried here. So is Harrison Henderson.
Nobody in the Colorado National Guard, 2nd Platoon, knows who these men were.
But they know what they were.
"Fallen soldiers," Capt. Shea Simms said quietly.
The 41-year-old is taking a short break from hauling huge trees uprooted by Hurricane Katrina away from the grave markers.
Along with about 20 other men, he's been at it since 8 a.m, sawing trees, clearing branches and trying to restore dignity to this national park so close to the Mississippi River that barge masts can be seen drifting behind the levees.
Simms, with a shaved head beaded with sweat, said clearing Chalmette National Cemetery isn't officially part of the Colorado National Guard's mission to this ravaged parish less than 20 miles outside New Orleans.
The guard, as of Tuesday, had more than 600 deployed to this region and has been assigned to the swampy St. Bernard Parish to clear roads, help with security and, up until Sunday, slog through soggy neighborhoods looking for survivors.
It was that day, while getting a rare hot meal on a nearby Navy ship docked on the Mississippi, that a truck full of troops rumbled past the graveyard. Somebody immediately noticed it was for dead war veterans - mostly for Union soldiers who died in Louisiana during the Civil War.
It's 17.5 acres, and there are more than 15,000 buried here. Not all are Civil War vets, either. There is a smattering from the War of 1812 and a few from Vietnam. More than 6,700 are unknown - their gravesites marked by small concrete stubs with a simple number inscribed on the top.
Cleanup is arduous job
The cemetery is quiet, aside from a chorus of crickets and the rustle of dry leaves amid a rare breeze that can break the damp, gauze-like air.
The silence is smashed when Pfc. Marion Justus revs up a chain saw and begins slicing away thick branches from a giant fallen oak tree. The 39-year-old from Thornton was chosen for chain saw duty because the scuttlebutt was that he had plenty of previous experience back home.
"I cut firewood," he explained from behind a blue surgical mask.
Sgt. Scott Secrist laughed.
The platoon actually began the clearing Monday afternoon, but it quickly became clear this wasn't going to be a one-day operation. National park officials visiting the site to assess the damage thought they might not even be able to get to it for another six to eight months.
It was an arduous process for the platoon, with heat turning their brown shirts dark with sweat. Each solider was careful to lift logs over tombstones - at one point 1st Sgt. Sergio Alvarez apologized to the headstone of J.D. Bennett after the large tree branch he was carrying hit it.
"It's about respect," he said. "It's about taking care of these guys."
Alvarez, 36, of Colorado Springs, admitted it was tiring work and that he wouldn't exactly mind being back at Pikes Peak Community College studying to be a "techno geek."
He said his wife's family can trace its roots back to the Civil War, where they fought for the Confederacy. Alvarez, who emigrated with his parents from Guatemala at the age of 5, said it didn't bother him that the cemetery only featured Union soldiers.
It didn't bother Simms and his long Alabama lineage either.
"I'm in the Union army now," he said.
When they broke for lunch, the soldiers were careful not to lean on the markers - some of which still had waterlines about a quarter of the way up. Large swaths of browning grass were covered in crispy leaves from fallen trees - some so large the trunks on their sides stood taller than a large truck.
Second Lt. Garret Rasnick said it might take a couple of days to clear the cemetery. For these soldiers, there would be no rest until the job was done.
"It's a national cemetery," 1st Sgt. Chris Green said as they began the job Monday afternoon. His voice hitched and his eyes began to water. "It's a good place."
Ellie