Cemetery Information

Naval Hospital Cuzco Well Cemetery Story by HM1 Dana Swope From the Guantanamo Bay Gazette, Vol. 65 No. 25, published June 27, 2008 NAVHOS GTMO Cemetery Custodian The Naval Hospital Cuzco Well Cemetery was established in 1940. The exact date is unknown, as no records exists as to when the site was formally established as a cemetery.  Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) history speaks about the site where the cemetery is located as the bivouac area of Spanish Troops during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Prior to 1940, there were seven cemeteries or burial plots at various locations in GTMO.  Fisherman’s Point Cemetery, also known as the Old Spanish Cemetery and lighthouse Dock Cemetery, were around before the American occupation of the station. There are no records available concerning the Spaniards and Cubans buried in that cemetery. In March 1909, the remains of five servicemen interred there were transferred to the North Toro Cay Cemetery. Leeward Point Site contains one grave that of a rancher named James McKinley, formerly of Torres, Scotland.  Prior to his death, he chose this site for his burial. Upon his death in 1901, his wishes were carried out. His grave remains undisturbed to this day.  Windward Point Burial Plot is located near the old lighthouse.  Three people were buried at this site between 1938 and 1940. Two of the graves were unmarked and no effort was made to transfer these remains to the Cuzco beach location.  Near Phillips Park Lighthouse is also the resting place of John Simmons. Mr. Simons is a Jamaican whose dying wish was to be buried in a standing position facing Jamaica and in a place where his vision could stand unimpeded. At the present time, Mr. Simmons ‘body still stands in infinite repose beyond the Phillips Park Lighthouse where a chained tomb supports him.  Native Cemetery, also known as the Water Hole Cemetery, is located near the town of Boqueron. Recorded burials at this cemetery were made during the same time period as the North Toro Cay Cemetery.  No records exist to indicate when the cemetery was established.  The Naval Station was involved with about 10 burials of Cuban civilians at this site.  The last coordinated interment in this cemetery was December of 1920, of a Jamaican resident who drowned. North Toro Cay cemetery, was established on April 3, 1906, and was located near the town of Boqueron. This was the primary base cemetery until it was disestablished in November 1944, and the remains transferred to the cemetery at Cuzco beach. Caracoles Point Burial Site was a quarantine burial plot for four people who died of Small Pox. The burials took place in December 1913 and February 1914. These remains were transferred to the Naval Cemetery at Cuzco Beach in November 1944. Another grave marked by a cross and bearing the word “UNKNOWN” was excavated, but no remains were found and there was no evidence of a grave having been dug there. McCalla Hill Cemetery was established in November 1917 with the burial of a Marine Corporal who died on November 17. This cemetery was used concurrently with North Toro Cay cemetery and the native Cemetery. It was disestablished in 1940 when all of the twenty-six remains interred at McCalla Hill Cemetery were transferred to the new Cuzco Beach Cemetery.  In 1944, the base commander decided all known grave sites located on the base were to be consolidated into one cemetery, with the exception of four buried at Windward Point and Leeward Point sites. Forty-one remains were disinterred from North Toro Cay and four from Caracoles Point and transferred to the Cuzco Beach Cemetery.  The first recorded burial at the Cuzco Beach Cemetery is that of Kumaji Makamoto, wardroom cook of the USS Indiana, which was operating around Guantanamo Bay. Currently there are three hundred and thirty-five people buried at the Cuzco Beach Cemetery.  The status of the descendants vary: active duty military, dependents of active duty, merchant mariners from the United States and other nations, Cuban residents and refugees, Jamaican and other foreign national employees, and Haitian refugees. As per BUMEDINST 5360.1, paragraph 13-2, individuals eligible for interment at a National Cemetery are not eligible for interment at a Naval Plot Cemetery. Utilizing guidelines set forth in BUMEDINST 5360.1, paragraph 2-3b (4), (5), and (6), the following individuals may be buried in a Naval Plot or Cemetery. - Indigent patients that were hospitalized in a naval medical facility provided disposition of remains cannot otherwise be made. - Persons not covered in BUMEDINST 5360.1, paragraph 2-3b (1) though while hospitalized in a naval medical facility or when death occurs onboard a naval installation,  provided disposition of remains cannot otherwise be made. - Prisoners of War (POW) or interned enemy aliens while in Navy or Marine Corps Custody. The U.S. Naval Cemetery is host to special Memorial Day services every year, and is open to the public only on that date.  Residents who desire to visit the cemetery any other day must contact the United States Naval Hospital in GTMO, but must be escorted to the cemetery by the Naval Station Ordinance Department.