Maritime Memorials
Nonprofit Veterans Memorial Reef honors veterans while helping the environment
By Simon Gonzalez | Photos Courtesy of Veterans Memorial Reef
L IKE most good ideas, this one started with a “what if?”
Thomas Marcinowski read an article about divers
taking the cremated remains of loved ones out to sea
and spreading the ashes. A similar thing occurs at a
paddle-out, when surfers scatter the ashes on the surface of
the ocean.
Marcinowski is a retired U.S. Army major who now works
as a physicians’ assistant at the Veterans Affairs clinic in
Wilmington. What if, he thought, there was a way to honor
those who served with a similar tribute? What if there was a way
to do it so the deceased lived on, not just in the memory of their
loved ones but in a manner that would benefit the environment?
He came up with a plan to incorporate the remains of those
who honorably served into an artificial reef.
“He approached me and said, ‘What do you think about this
concept?’” says Joe Irrera, a retired Marine Corps colonel. “I
thought it was a phenomenal idea.”
Veterans Memorial Reef was founded as a nonprofit in
2019, with Marcinowski as CEO and Irrera as president. The
organization worked with the North Carolina Department of
Marine Fisheries for a site, and was granted access to AR-372,
an artificial reef on a 160-acre site about five miles out from
Wrightsville Beach.
“Local fishermen know it as boxcars,” Irrera says.
28 november 2021
WBM