My father passed away in January of 2000 and is now burried at the Fort Stanton cemetary. His grave is below.
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| Fort Stanton, NM | |
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| My father, E.V.Schaerer, was a captian in the Merchant Marine for decades. He skippered transport and tanker ships across the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean during World War II. He and his wife Jean retired to Ruidoso, NM in the late 80s. While exploring around the area, they saw a white monument sticking up out of a field of tall grass. When they got closer, the monument was behind a tall wall with an iron gate. Now, the setting is in the land-locked state of New Mexico 7,000 feet in the air. When they walked up to the monument they were very surprised to see a plaque (see upper right picture) dedicating this cemetary to the Merchant Marines. During and right after World War II, Fort Stanton (right down the road from the cemetary) was used as a TB hospital. | ||||||||||||||||
| Due to my father and Jean's efforts in restoring the cemetary, the Merchant Marine placed this plaque in the cemetary dedicated to both of them. | ||||||||||||||||
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| My father and Jean adopted the cemetary as a retirement project, cleared the tall grass, restored hundreds of graves, inventoried the people burried there and started celebrating Memorial Day there. My father passed away in January of 2000 and is now burried at the Fort Stanton cemetary. His grave is below. |
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| His rank, "Master Mariner, Oceans Unlimited" meant that he could skipper anything from a row boat to the largest ships anywhere in the world. Not many attain that highest rank. | ||||||||||||||||
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| There are several very interesting stories about the folks burried there. Relatives of the soldier below bring stuffed bears each time they visit and non of them have ever been stolen. | ||||||||||||||||
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