National Cemetery Administration
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery
Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day.
This cemetery is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite. Periodically however, burial space may become available due to disinterment from an existing gravesite or for other reasons. If burial space is available at the time of request, the cemetery will assign such gravesites or columbarium niches to other eligible Veterans or family members. Since there is no way to know in advance when a gravesite may become available, please contact the cemetery at the time of need to inquire whether space is available.
Burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces who have met a minimum active duty service requirement and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.
A Veteran's spouse, widow or widower, minor dependent children, and under certain conditions, unmarried adult children with disabilities may also be eligible for burial. Eligible spouses and children may be buried even if they predecease the Veteran.
Members of the reserve components of the armed forces who die while on active duty or who die while on training duty, or were eligible for retired pay, may also be eligible for burial.
From Interstate 5 South or Interstate-8 West: Exit at Rosecrans Street, turn right on Canon Street, turn left on Catalina Boulevard.
From Interstate 5 North: Exit and turn left on Hawthorne Street, turn right on N. Harbor Drive, turn left on Rosecrans Street, turn right on Canon Street, turn left on Catalina Boulevard. Exit at Rosecrans Street (State route 209), turn right on Canon, turn left on Catalina Blvd.
From the nearest airport: Turn right on N. Harbor Drive, turn left on Rosecrans Street, turn right on Canon Street, turn left on Catalina Boulevard.
Public Transportation: San Diego Transit, Route 28.
Fax all discharge documentation to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-866-900-6417 and follow-up with a phone call to 1-800-535-1117.
For information on scheduled burials in our national cemeteries, please go to the Daily Burial Schedule.
For general information or rescheduling of services, please call 858-658-7360 during office hours.
Military Funeral Honors
Military Funeral Honors are provided by the following services. Your local funeral director can assist you with obtaining honors.
Air Force: March Air Force Base
Army: Ft. Irwin or local National Guard units
Marine Corps: MCRD, San Diego
Navy: 32nd Street Naval Base, San Diego
82nd Airborne Detail (Volunteers)
For educational materials and additional information on this cemetery, please visit the Education section, located below.
Fresh cut flowers may be placed on graves and in the gravel areas surrounding the Columbarium, Memorial Walls or Memorial Monuments at any time. Cemetery furnished temporary flower containers are available and located throughout the cemetery in specially marked containers.
All floral items will be removed as soon as they become faded and/or unsightly, and may also be removed every week to accommodate grounds maintenance, to include removal of artificial flowers. Floral pickup is every Friday.
Artificial flowers may be placed on graves and in the gravel areas surrounding the Columbarium, Memorial Walls or Memorial Monuments November through February.
Plantings will not be permitted on graves and in the gravel areas surrounding the Columbarium Memorial Walls or Memorial Monuments at any time. Potted plants will be permitted on graves and in the gravel areas surrounding Columbarium, Memorial Wall or Memorial Monuments five days before and five after Easter Sunday and Memorial Day. During the winter season a Holiday wreath or plant is allowed. Floral blankets are not authorized due to the year round growing season.
To maintain the dignity of the cemetery, items such as candles, statues, flags, glass of any kind, vigil lights, shepherd's hooks, wind chimes, pinwheels, balloons, memorabilia, or any item exceeding 24 inches in height are not permitted on graves and in the gravel areas surrounding the Columbarium, Memorial Walls or Memorial Monuments, at any time. Items of any type will not be secured to Headstones, Niches, Memorial Markers or Memorial Monuments.
Rules of Behavior: In order to preserve the dignity and honor of our Veterans final resting place, please observe the following while visiting the cemetery grounds:
- Guns, knives or other weapons are not allowed.
- Pets are not permitted outside of vehicles except service animals.
- Picnicking, biking, jogging, running or other recreational sports of any kind are not permitted.
- Soliciting is not permitted.
- Unauthorized gatherings are not permitted.
- Please do not litter or park on grass areas.
VA regulations 38 CFR 1.218 prohibit the carrying of firearms (either openly or concealed), explosives or other dangerous or deadly weapons while on VA property, except for official purposes, such as military funeral honors.
Possession of firearms on any property under the charge and control of VA is prohibited. Offenders may be subject to a fine, removal from the premises, or arrest.
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is located on the Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation, 10 miles west of San Diego, California. The hilly peninsula offers picturesque vistas to the city, bay, and Pacific Ocean. It was one of seven national cemeteries created between world wars, 1934–1939. It was the Army's first major expansion since the Civil War directed at serving a growing veteran population and the rapidly depleting burial space at existing national cemeteries. Unlike previous new cemeteries, locations were based on veterans' places of residence, especially in or near large cities. New cemetery locations were based on veterans' places of residence. The other interwar national cemeteries are Baltimore, Maryland; Fort Bliss and Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Fort Snelling, Minnesota; Golden Gate, California; and Long Island, New York.
The Point Loma peninsula has held military importance dating to Spanish control of the region. While the Spanish Empire identified the area as potentially strategically important in the mid-1500s, a permanent settlement was not established here until the mid-1700s — to counter expansion of the Russian Empire into Alaska and the Pacific Coast. A presidio and mission in present-day Old Town San Diego were among the initial Spanish construction. Mexico won its independence from Spain and claimed the territory in 1821.
During the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), Brigadier Stephen Watts Kearny was tasked with conquering Mexico's northern provinces, New Mexico, and California. On December 6–7, 1846, his joint U.S. military force engaged a group of Californios (Mexican colonists born in California) in the Battle of San Pasqual, about 30 miles north of San Diego. Eighteen of Kearny's men fell in the battle, but his forces held the field. The dead were buried where they fell, but by 1874 the remains were removed to the San Diego Military Reservation. Eight years later they were reinterred at what is now Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. In 1922, the San Diego chapter of the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West had a large boulder brought from the battlefield and placed at the gravesite with a plaque that lists the names of the dead.
Soon after San Pasqual, the U.S. military fortified the San Diego Mission as a post. In 1850, California joined the Union as a state. Disputes between the War Department and city of San Diego over Point Loma prevented the construction of a military installation there until the late 1860s. A permanent, habitable, fort was not completed until the Spanish American War (1898–1902) forced the issue in February 1898. The fort was named for Civil War General William Starke Rosecrans in 1899.
The Fort Rosecrans Post Cemetery was the origin of what became Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. During the period as a post cemetery, most notably, this tract became the final resting place for sailors killed in the July 21, 1905, boiler explosion on the USS Bennington. A substantial peacetime naval tragedy, the explosion led to the deaths of sixty crew. On July 23, 1905, the cemetery held funeral services for thirty-six of the sixty victims (one was later disinterred). A burial trench 60 feet long and 14 feet wide was dug at "the desolate cemetery surrounded by a rude picket fence." Soon after, the Pacific Squadron erected a large, granite obelisk in memory of the tragedy; the obelisk marks the location of the thirty-five gravesites within a low masonry wall.
After the USS Bennington tragedy, high-ranking Army and the Navy officials made several attempts to designate the post cemetery at Fort Rosecrans as a national cemetery. The War Department did not approve. It argued that San Francisco National Cemetery, established in 1884 as the sole West Coast national cemetery, provided ample burial space. The post cemetery grew during this period, despite the failed attempts to raise its status.
Expansion of veterans' burial benefits in 1920 created a dramatic increase in the civilian population eligible for burial. Additionally, the continued presence of thousands of active-duty military on the Pacific coast, strained the capacity of San Francisco National Cemetery. These factors led to the establishment of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery by War Department General Orders No. 7 on October 5, 1934. The original 8-acre cemetery grew by slightly more than 62 acres between 1934 and 1965, bisected by Cabrillo Memorial Drive.
Much of the construction of the cemetery was accomplished by the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA), which brought the southern half near to completion by March 1938. By 1940, burial space at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery already dwindled.
When established as a national cemetery in 1934, there were no extant buildings. But by 1936, recognizable features of the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery built landscape included regionally inspired Spanish Eclectic-style structures and buildings — an open rostrum, superintendent lodge, and maintenance facility/restrooms — with stucco finishes with Mission tile roofs. Work on the cemetery's first boundary wall on the east side of Cabrillo Memorial Drive, including the main entrance, was finished in 1938. As burial sections expanded in the 1940s, so did the eastern boundary wall. The Gettysburg Address tablet was installed on the rostrum in 1936; other historic tablets found at the cemetery are the Memorial Day Order and National Cemetery Act.
By August 15, 1947, the Army's official plan to meet demands for burial space was to expand the cemetery with north and south land additions. Development along the west side of Cabrillo Memorial Drive commenced by the early 1950s. The west entrance gates and U.S. flagpole were added in 1952. While older buildings on the cemeter's east side reflected more traditional architectural styles, the administration office built in 1957 reflects mid-century influences.
In 1965, the Department of the Navy transferred approximately 1 acre to the cemetery. The next year, Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery officially closed to new interments other than Vietnam War casualties, reserved gravesites, and second interments at existing gravesites. The cemetery provided interment space for cremains by the construction of columbaria walls and in-ground niches beginning in 2002; when the final niche was claimed in May 2014, Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery again closed to new burials. To supplant Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery and finally provide much-needed burial space, approximately 16 miles to the north, in January 2010 NCA opened Miramar National Cemetery.
Fort Rosecrans is one of more than eighty VA national cemeteries that use upright headstones and flat grave markers in separate burial sections. Here, flat markers are used in certain infill sections, near roads and walls. The cemetery was designated a California Historical Landmark in 1932. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Monuments and Memorials
The granite and bronze USS Wasp (CV-7) monument commemorates the loss of fellow shipmates during Battle of Guadalcanal on September 15, 1942. Erected in 1995, the upright granite block measures approximately 6½ feet tall with an affixed bronze plaque.
The San Diego chapter of the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West installed the Battle of San Pasqual Monument in 1922 to honor the soldiers who died in the 1846 battle during the Mexican War. The monument is a 3-foot-tall granite boulder affixed with a bronze plaque.
The USS Bennington (PG 4) Monument is a 60-foot-tall obelisk dedicated to the men who lost their lives on that ship in San Diego Harbor on July 21, 1905. The monument was completed in 1907 and dedicated on January 7, 1908. Placed on a prominent hill, visible for miles at sea, the monument was a San Diego landmark for many years. Nothing is known about the designer or builder, but the granite was quarried locally. The obelisk is made of seventy-four rusticated blocks each 18 inches tall; it measures 6-feet square at the base, tapering to 3½-feet square at the top, capped with a 5-foot-tall, polished granite apex. A low wall of granite curbing borders the graves of the men who died in the explosion. In 2010, a monument-conservation project restored the placement of the curbing, which had been obscured, and otherwise treated the obelisk.
The Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) Monument, which honors the men lost in action when this ship was bombed in January 1945, was erected ca. 1994. The upright granite block with bronze plaques is approximately 6½ feet tall and 6 feet wide.
The granite Taffy 3 Monument was dedicated on October 24, 1996, in memory of the men who died during the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf (Philippines) and in subsequent battles of the Pacific.
The granite and bronze USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73) Monument was dedicated on October 25, 1996, in memory of the men who lost their lives during the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf (Philippines) and in subsequent battles of the Pacific. Family members and survivors donated the monument.
A trio of inscribed granite blocks form the monument to the men who died on the USS Hoel (DD 533), USS Johnston (DD 557), and USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE 413) during the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf (Philippines). Dedicated in 1995, collectively the panels measure about 16 feet wide.
The USS St. Lo (CVE-63) and Composite Squadron VC-65 monument was erected in 1994 to the memory of the men who died on those ships in the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf (Philippines). The upright granite block with bronze plaques is approximately 6½ feet tall and 6 feet wide.
The Mormon Battalion Monument was erected ca. 1995–1998 to commemorate the 2,000-mile march the Mormons made from Iowa to San Diego in 1846–1847 during the Mexican-American War. The polished white marble tablet is inscribed with a depiction of a man and a woman, presumably Albert Warren Dunham and Lydia Ann Edmunds Hunter. Both died during the march and were interred on Point Loma until the Army relocated their remains to Fort Rosecrans in 1887 along with other military personnel.
The Patriots of America monument was dedicated in 1999 by the California State Society of the Founders and Patriots of America to honor all Americans who answered the call to arms.
The polished black granite 3rd Infantry Division monument was dedicated on February 16, 2002, dedicated to their fallen comrades.
The Blue Star Memorial Marker was donated by the Point Loma Garden Club of California and dedicated on June 24, 2010. The marker is a tribute to American men and women who have served, are serving, or will serve their country. Its symbolism dates to World War II when families of men and women in service displayed a square flag decorated with a blue star in their windows to signify that a loved one was in the armed forces.
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Recipients receive the Medal of Honor from the President on behalf of Congress. It was first awarded during the Civil War and the eligibility criteria, medal design, and recognition on a recipients' grave marker have all evolved over time. There are 390 Medal of Honor recipients interred in VA national cemeteries.
» Medal of Honor recipients buried or memorialized here:
Commander Charles Francis Bishop (Mexican Campaign). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Florida for actions during the seizure of Vera Cruz, April 21, 1914. Bishop died in 1954 and is buried in Section O, Site 4562.
Captain Willis Winter Bradley, Jr. (World War I). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Pittsburgh for actions at the time of an explosion on the vessel, July 23, 1917. Bradley died in 1954 and is buried in Section O, Site 2925.
Major Mason Carter (Indian Wars). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Army, 5th U.S. Infantry, for actions at Bear Paw Mountain, Montana Territory, September 30, 1877. Carter died in 1909 and is buried in Section PS-4, Site 102.
Staff Sergeant Peter S. Connor (Vietnam). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for service in the U.S. Marine Corps, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 3d Marines, 1st Marine Division, in recognition of gallantry and self-sacrifice in Quang Ngai Province, Republic of Vietnam, February 25, 1966. Connor is buried in Section A-E, Site 1005.
Lieutenant Commander William "Willie" S. Cronan. He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Bennington for extraordinary heroism when a boiler exploded on the vessel at San Diego, California, July 21, 1905. Cronan died in 1959 and is buried in Section T, Site 534.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Albert L. David (World War II). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his service in the U.S. Navy in recognition of actions while attached to the USS Pillsbury during the capture of a German submarine off French West Africa, June 4, 1944. David died in 1945 and is buried in Section OS, Site 125-A.
Major General James L. Day (World War II). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, 2d Battalion, 22nd Marines, 6th Marine Division, for actions on Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, May 14–17, 1945. Day died in 1998 and is buried in Section P, Site 1748.
Brigadier General Jesse Farley Dyer (Mexican Campaign). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps for distinguished conduct in battle during the engagements at Vera Cruz, April 21–22, 1914. Dyer died in 1955 and is buried in Section P, Site 1606.
Vice Admiral Middleton S. Elliott (Mexican Campaign). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy for distinguished conduct in battle during the engagements at Vera Cruz, April 21–22, 1914. Elliot died in 1952 and is buried in Section P, Site 2628.
Captain Michael John Estocin (Vietnam). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for service in the U.S. Navy, Attack Squadron 192, in recognition of unswerving devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger in Haiphong, North Vietnam, April 20 and April 26, 1967. Estocin is memorialized in Section MA, Site 112.
Commander Donald A. Gary (World War II). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy as an engineering officer attached to the USS Franklin, for actions when the vessel was attacked in the Japanese Home Islands near Kobe, Japan, March 19, 1945. Gary died in 1977 and is buried in Section A-1, Site 3-B.
Seaman Ora Graves (World War I). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Pittsburgh for actions at the time of an explosion on the vessel, July 23, 1917. Graves died in 1961 and is buried in Section W, Site 1208.
Brigadier General Herman Henry Hanneken (Haitian Campaign, 1919–1920). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, for actions near Grande Riviere, Republic of Haiti, October 31–November 1, 1919. Hanneken died in 1986 and is buried in Section C, Site 166-D.
First Sergeant Jimmie Earl Howard (Vietnam). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Company C, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, for leadership and fighting spirit in the Republic of Vietnam, June 16, 1966. Howard died in 1993 and is buried in Section O, Site 3759.
Major Ross L. Iams (Haitian Campaign, 1915). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, 5th Company, for actions during the attack on Fort Riviere, Republic of Haiti, November 17, 1915. Iams died in 1952 and is buried in Section P, Site 2930.
Ensign Herbert Charpiot Jones (World War II). Californian Herbert C. Jones enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1935, and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy before joining the USS California in 1940. On board the vessel on December 7, 1941, he urged fellow sailors to safety, "Leave me alone! I am done for. Get out of here before the magazines go off." Ensign Jones was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the country into World War II. In 1943 the U.S. Navy launched a destroyer escort, USS Herbert C. Jones, in his honor. He is buried in Section G, Site 76.
Master-at-Arms Second Class Michael A. Monsoor (Iraq War). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for service in the U.S. Navy, SEAL Team 3, in recognition of exceptional bravery and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death in Ramadi, Iraq, September 29, 2006. Monsoor is buried in Section U, Site 412-E.
Jennifer Moreno (Afghanistan). Moreno was born in San Diego in 1988. She obtained a nursing degree from the University of San Francisco on a ROTC scholarship and served as an Army nurse after graduation. She completed Army Airborne training in 2009. Moreno volunteered to serve as a Cultural Support Team member attached to the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment. This female-led team's main function was to help communicate with Afghani women and mediate for Special Operations units on the front lines. On the evening of Oct. 5, 2013, Moreno and the other soldiers were performing a raid on an enemy bomb-making compound in the Zhari District of Afghanistan. It was there that a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device. Following the explosion, other enemy insurgents activated more improvised explosives. Moreno went to the aid of another soldier wounded in the attack and while attending to a fellow soldier, she stepped on a concealed landmine and was killed at age 25. She was posthumously promoted to captain and awarded the Combat Action Badge, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Purple Heart, Afghanistan Campaign Medal and NATO Medal.
Lieutenant John Edward Murphy (Spanish-American War). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy for actions in connection with the sinking of the USS Merrimac at the entrance of the harbor of Santiago, Cuba, June 2, 1898. Murphy died in 1941 and is buried in Section OS, Site 363.
Sergeant James Irsley Poynter (Korea). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for service in the U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, in recognition of actions and self-sacrificing conduct in defense of Hill 532 near Sudong, Korea, November 4, 1950. Poynter is buried in Section O, Site 729.
Sergeant Anund C. Roark (Vietnam). He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for service in the U.S. Army, Company C, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division, in recognition of gallantry and self-sacrifice on a rescue mission in Kontum Province, Republic of Vietnam, May 16, 1968. Roark is buried in Section O, Site 1855.
Major Henry Frank Schroeder (Philippine Insurrection). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Army, Company L, 16th U.S. Infantry, for actions at Carig, Philippine Islands, September 14, 1900. Schroeder died in 1959 and is buried in Section S, Site 854.
Lieutenant Commander Robert Semple (Mexican Campaign). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Florida for actions during the landing of U.S. naval forces at Vera Cruz, April 21, 1914. Semple died in 1943 and is buried in Section OS-A, Site 192.
Lieutenant William Zuiderveld (Mexican Campaign). He received the Medal of Honor while serving in the U.S. Navy on board the USS Florida for actions during the seizure of Vera Cruz, April 21, 1914. Zuiderveld died in 1978 and is buried in Section A-1, Site 9-B.
Other Burials
Thomas S. Crow was the fourth Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy and the highest ranking enlisted man. Crow joined the Navy in 1953 and trained as an aviation structural mechanic. He would later work in human relations serving as a race relations specialist and as a manager of a drug and alcohol program. He was selected from a slate of six candidates for the top enlisted man position in 1979. During his tenure he was instrumental in the creation of the Navy's Senior Enlisted Academy and worked to improve the day-to-day lives of sailors.
Reuben Hollis Fleet was born in 1887 in Washington Territory. He graduated from Culver Military Academy, Indiana, in 1906, and became an officer in the National Guard. He was elected to the Washington State legislature in 1915, becoming its youngest serving member. From 1917–1922, Fleet was commissioned in the U.S. Army Signal Corps where he organized the first air-mail flights between Washington, DC, and New York. Maj. Fleet was a contracting officer for the U.S. Air Service at Dayton, and flew test flights there. After military service, he pursued aircraft production and established Consolidated Aircraft Corp. By World War II, his aircraft-design expertise was behind the manufacture of training planes, seaplanes, and B-24 Liberator Bombers. Fleet's influence is recognized in San Diego's Space Theater and Science Center and the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Fleet died October 29, 1975. (Section O, Site 674)
Sergeant Thomas J. Higgins, Jr. (World War II). Higgins (1922–2000) was born in Far Rockaway, NY. He served in the Pacific Theater of Operations with the U.S. Army and was stationed in Japan shortly after the atomic bombs were dropped. His lungs were so badly damaged from exposure to radiation that he required a two-year convalescence in a military hospital. When he recovered, he returned to New York and enrolled in the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and became a freelance cartoonist. Over the course of his long career, his cartoons appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, Theatre Arts, and Parade. He also submitted more than 487 cartoons to Ripley's Believe it or Not. He passed away at the age of 77 and now rests in Section CBE, Row 4, Site 120.
Able Seaman Hermon Reed Howes (World War I). Howes (1900–1964) was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Ogden, UT. He served in the U.S. Navy at the tail end of the First World War and became the captain of the Pacific Fleet's swim team. After his wartime service, Howes began modeling shirts and detachable collars, which led to opportunities in the film industry. His career in Hollywood spanned the silent film era into the modern age of sound films. With the advent of "talkies," Howes began playing villains, predominantly in Westerns, and continued to act throughout the 1940s and 1950s before retiring due to illness. He was sent to the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital and passed away there at the age of 64. (Section X, Row 0, Site 2163)
Lt. Gen. Victor H. "Brute" Krulak, USMC, (Ret.), served as commanding general of Fleet Marine Force Pacific during the early years of the Vietnam War. Prior Krulak had served in both the Korean War and World War II. During the later, as a lieutenant colonel, he led a battalion in a diversionary raid to cover the invasion of Bougainville. He was wounded during action but refused to be evacuated; for his bravery, he was awarded the Navy Cross. Earlier in 1937, while stationed in Shanghai, he witnessed a Japanese assault against Chinese forces at the mouth of the Yangtze River in landing craft equipped with a square bow that became a retractable ramp for dispatching troops and equipment. Though he sent photos back to the United States, his report was initially ignored. Later, he consulted with New Orleans boat builder Andrew Higgins on what would become the landing craft used during the invasions of Normandy, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1968 and went to work as an executive and columnist for Copley newspapers. In 1984, Krulak penned First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps, which is considered the definitive book on the history and culture of the Marine Corps.
Major Samuel "Sammy" Lee (Korea). Sammy Lee (1920–2016) was born in Fresno, CA to Korean immigrant parents. During high school and college he excelled at diving, winning the United States National Diving Championship before going on to achieve two gold medals and one bronze medal in the 1948 and 1952 Olympic games. Prior to this he had attended the University of Southern California School of Medicine while serving in the Army Reserves. Lee served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in South Korea from 1953 to 1955. Due to his Olympic fame, he also served as a goodwill ambassador for the State Department, attempting to counter communist propaganda about the U.S. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968 and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990. Sammy Lee Square in Los Angeles' Koreatown was named after him, in addition to various sites throughout California. Lee passed away in 2016 and now rests in Section CBD, Row 2, Site 425.
Corporal Richard Thomas O'Brien (Spanish-American War). O'Brien (1878–1962) was born in Portlaw, Ireland and immigrated to the United States in 1882. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1898 and served in Company M, 26th Infantry Regiment during the Philippine-American War. After his three-year enlistment expired, O'Brien went to New York City to pursue his love of acting. Under the stage name Richard Garrick, he performed in a variety of Broadway productions before moving to Los Angeles to become a member of the Rialto Star Feature Company. His acting career continued until World War II, when he joined the U.S. Army Special Service and assisted with USO shows. After the war, he returned to Hollywood and performed in over 30 films to include A Streetcar Named Desire, Stars and Stripes Forever, and East of Eden. (Section Y, Row 0, Site 59)
Lieutenant General John Wilson "Iron Mike" O'Daniel, U.S. Army, Commanded the 3rd Infantry Division, the Rock of the Marne, during World War II, the first Allied unit into Berchtesgaden in May 1945. (Section A-E, Site 1172)
Major General Joseph H. Pendleton graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1884. By 1913, Pendleton had risen to the rank of colonel and was the commanding officer at the Marine Barracks at Puget Sound, where he was on expeditionary duty for much of the time. In mid-1914 after arriving in San Diego, Pendleton began to advocate for the establishment of a major Marine Corps installation in the area due to the location's favorable weather and harbor. Retiring from military service in 1924, then General Pendleton settled in nearby Coronado where he served as mayor for a time. He died in February 1942. Later that year construction began on a Marine Corps base near Oceanside, California, and in September, Camp Joseph H. Pendleton was official dedicated by President Roosevelt. (Officer Sections, Site 191)
Walter Marty Schirra studied aeronautical engineering at the Newark College of Engineering and, in 1942, was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy. Upon graduation in 1945, Ensign Schirra served on the battle cruiser Alaska and went on to complete pilot training. During the Korean War, as an exchange pilot with the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron, he flew 90 combat missions in F-84E jets. He received the U.S. Navy Distinguished Service Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross, among other honors. Schirra was selected as one of the first NASA astronauts in 1959. He is the only one to have flown in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. After a notable career as a pilot and space pioneer, Capt. Schirra retired from military service in 1969. He died May 3, 2005. (Section MZ, Site 106)
Oscar Jones Singer, native of Arizona, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on December 12, 1944. PFC Singer was a Navajo Code Talker in the Pacific Theater during World War II and completed his tour of duty in December 1945. In 2001, the Navajo Code Talkers were presented with the Congressional Silver Medal. Singer's honor was posthumous. He died in 1954. (Section O, Site 350)
General Holland Smith, U.S. Marine Corps, commanded FMF in the Pacific during World War II and led the "island hopping" campaign in central Pacific.
Laurence Stallings was a screenwriter with over two dozen writing credits, i.e. "What Price Glory."
Private First Class Richard M. "Dick" Wessel (World War II). Wessel (1913–1965) was born in Milwaukee, WI and became a bit player in Hollywood films during the mid-1930's. He was mustered into the U.S. Marine Corps in July 1943 at the Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA, and served stateside until 1945. Wessel appeared in more than 270 films during his career. He performed in a wide range of movies and television shows to include Dick Tracy films, The Three Stooges, The Twilight Zone, and the NBC western series Riverboat. He had a brief cameo as a grenade instructor in a film beloved by all Marines, The Sands of Iwo Jima, starring John Wayne. He passed away on his 52nd birthday and now rests in Section PS-3, Row 0, Site 370-E.
Foreign Nationals
There are six Mexican federal soldiers interred here that died in confinement between 1913 and 1914. Large numbers of soldiers and refugees fled across the border during the Mexican Revolution and were interned in detention centers on the U.S.-Mexico border. The largest of the centers were at Ft. Rosecrans; Ft. Bliss, TX; and Ft. Wingate, NM. (Section PS-11, Sites 154–159)
Two United Kingdom servicemen — one from each of the world wars are buried here.
We are developing educational content for this national cemetery, and will post new materials as they become available. Visit the Veterans Legacy Program and NCA History Program for additional information. Thank you for your interest.
