Information Warfare Training Site (IWTS) Yokosuka Sailors volunteered with their counterparts from Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) to clean up the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery in preparation for Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 7.

The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery serves as a place for foreign nationals to be laid to rest when they pass away while serving overseas. Thirty Sailors volunteered to spend their day cleaning up tree limbs, weeds and other objects to beautify the cemetery after multiple typhoons recently passed through the area and damaged the facility.

"Doing this gave everyone a chance to reflect on and honor the service of those who have gone before us," said Cryptologic Technician (Collections) 1st Class Clifton Reid, who serves as an instructor with IWTS Yokosuka.

His shipmate at IWTS Yokosuka, Information Systems Technician 1st Class Crystal Guzman, added, “It felt nice to give back to the community.”

After the clean-up was complete, participants toured the multiple memorials, graves and the museum contained in the cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1854, when Commodore Matthew C. Perry negotiated with the Japanese to lay to rest Robert Williams, a 24-year-old Marine. A piece of land was identified within the Zotokuin Temple in Yokohama for the deceased. This practice has continued for over 150 years since then, and has been expanded to allow other foreign nations a location to bury their dead when they are away from home.

During the clean-up, IWTS Yokosuka Sailors spent the majority of their time beautifying the area surrounding the USS Oneida memorial. The memorial was erected for Sailors who perished when the USS Oneida, a sloop-of-war, sank off the coast of Yokohama, Japan in 1870. Other Sailors focused on the World War I memorial where over 100 U.S. service members are buried.

IWTC San Diego, as part of the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), provides a continuum of training to Navy and joint service personnel that prepares them to conduct information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

With four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT is recognized as Naval Education and Training Command’s top learning center for the past three years. Training over 20,000 students every year, CIWT delivers trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.

Get more information about the Navy from US Navy Facebook or Twitter.

For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training, visit www.navy.mil/.