Restin' in the NMC - I'm Not Dead Yet!
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The "Restin' in" caches are a series that will take you to local cemeteries and places of great historical interest. From pioneer and modern people, and now this Cemetery of National significance, these places are full of interesting stories and information. Please take your time - walk around, and visit. Our National Military Cemetery is meant to be visited by you. I know you will be respectful of the nature of this sacred place.
The cache is not at the posted coordinates, they are simply parking coordinates which will bring you to the foot of the Monument dedicating the grounds of the National Military Cemetery. From the designated parking coords the RCMP Cemetery will be a short walk to the west. Please take a moment to visit this site as well. Beechwood Cemetery is not only a National Historic Site, designated as such in 2001, and the final resting place of many significant Canadians, including Sir Robert Borden, Sir Sanford Fleming and the Right Honourable Ray Hnatyshyn, 24th Governor General of Canada, it is also the site of the National Cemetery for the Canadian Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The National Military Cemetery was, “dedicated on behalf of the people of Canada on 28 June 2001.” Internment in the Cemetery is open to, “currently serving, and honourably released Regular and Primary Reserve Force members of The Canadian Forces, members honourably released from a former Canadian Service, Canadian Veterans of the World Wars or Korean War and the Canadian Merchant Navy. One designated family member may also be interred in the same plot as the service member.” All that to say that within these grounds one can find the graves of veterans of the World Wars, Korea, peacekeeping missions, those who have made the supreme sacrifice in Afghanistan, and those who have simply served at some point in their lives and very frequently, their spouse. Many members are still serving. The interesting point about the eligibility criteria is that as a serving member (the term “serving” necessarily inferring that one is still alive) one can apply for internment in cemetery. Once verification of one's service is accepted, one's headstone is placed soon thereafter (unlike most cemeteries where the headstone is not placed until the plot is, well, occupied). In case there is any uncertainty, yes, you can still be alive, but your headstone is already in place! As you might imagine, this can be rather unnerving for someone visiting the cemetery and unexpectedly coming upon the headstone of a friend. To make the find you will have to find two pieces of information and complete simple math in the field. Once you have taken a moment to reflect on the monument and the grounds before you, you are invited to walk the centre walk, East towards a second monument, some 160 metres away. On your walk, please take time to browse amongst the headstones. A headstone you will need to stop at will be that of yours truly (gettin' creepy now?) at N 45 26.831 W 75 39.375. Now, if you've been observant of the headstones on the way here you may have noticed that along with other personal information, their affiliation is also inscribed. In my case my affiliation is the name of my Regiment. Take the initials of my Regiment, which should appear similar to, “AABA” and translate them into their alphabetical numbers. After placing a decimal between the first and second digits, subtract this number from 35.284 to find the latitude of the cache. Now, note my wife's affiliation, something like , “CD”. Convert her affiliation to numbers, and using information from both affiliations, create the number “A.BCD”. Add that number to 31.196 to find the longitude of the cache. You now have the answer for the final, which is a short drive away. Please continue to use discretion when retrieving the cache.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)