Fort Snelling National Cemetery Explained
Fort Snelling National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory adjacent to the historicfort and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It is the only National Cemetery in Minnesota. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it covers, and as of June, 2024 had over 260,000 interments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
History
Fort Snelling was a frontier fort first established in 1819. Its original purpose was to keep the peace on what was then the western frontier. During the American Civil War it served as a recruiting camp area for Minnesota volunteers. The cemetery was officially established in 1870.
In 1937, the citizens of St. Paul petitioned Congress to construct a National Cemetery in the area. Two years later, the new plot was dedicated, and the burials from the original post cemetery were moved to it. In 1960, the Fort Snelling Air Force Station transferred to the cemetery; another 177acres were acquired in 1961, expanding the cemetery to its current size.
There was a tradition of placing a flag on every grave on Memorial Day, but as the cemetery grew, the staff was forced to stop. In 2017, the nonprofit Flags for Fort Snelling revived the tradition;[1] volunteers placed 200,000 memorial flags in 2019.[2]
Notable interments
Medal of Honor recipients
- Second Lieutenant Donald E. Rudolph Sr., US Army, Medal of Honor recipient for action in the Battle of Luzon in World War II
- Captain Richard E. Fleming, USMC, for action at Midway in World War II (cenotaph, body was not recovered)
- Private First Class Richard E. Kraus, USMC, for action at Peleliu in World War II
- Private First Class James D. LaBelle, USMC, for action at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II
- Captain Arlo Olson, US Army, for action in Italy during World War II
- Staff Sergeant Robert J. Pruden, US Army, for action in the Vietnam War
- First Lieutenant Richard Keith Sorenson, USMC, for action on Kwajalein during World War II
- Captain George H. Mallon, US Army, for actions in France during World War I
- Machinist Mate First Class Oscar F. Nelson, US Navy, for heroism aboard the USS Bennington during peacetime
Other
George John Weiss Jr Recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal and Founder of the Fort Snelling Memorial Rifle Squad
- Johnny Blanchard, baseball player
- Thomas Edward Burnett Jr, United Airlines Flight 93 passenger
- Bob Casey, baseball announcer
- Mark H. Gehan, Mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota state representative, and lawyer, World War I
- Frank Eugene Hook, US Congressman, World War I veteran
- Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, pioneer of modern open-heart surgery
- Corporal Charles W. Lindberg, last surviving member of the Marines who flag raised the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II
- Ernest Lundeen, US Congressman
- John Mariucci, hockey coach, member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame
- Hal Scott, sports announcer
- Bruce P. Smith, 1941 football player, Heisman Trophy winner
- David C. Sutherland III, game artist[3]
- Major Tim Vakoc, US Army Chaplain mortally wounded in Mosul during the Iraq War
- Private Tracie McBride, rape and murder victim[4]
- John Clay Walker, American journalist, tortured and murdered in Mexico by members of the Guadalajara Cartel
- Jim Klobuchar, Minnesota journalist and author
The cemetery contains one British Commonwealth war grave, of a Royal Canadian Air Force airman of World War II.[5]
External links
Notes and References
- News: Nonprofit seeks help placing flags at every Ft. Snelling grave on Memorial Day. Fox KMSP. 2017-05-23. en-US. 2017-07-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20170701085335/http://www.fox9.com/news/256293689-story. dead.
- Web site: Fort Snelling Volunteers Place 200K Memorial Flags . Steiner . Katie . May 26, 2019 . . November 12, 2019 .
- Web site: Dungeons and Dragons artist dies. June 15, 2005. CBC News. March 2, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20080630060748/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2005/06/15/sutherland050614.html. 2008-06-30.
- "To Private Tracie Joy McBride (Senate – March 08, 1995) ." U.S. Congressional Record, Library of Congress. Retrieved on July 18, 2016.
- http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2719816/WICKLEM,%20RUSSELL%20JOHN
