Unlike Past Wars, Gravestones of Iraq, Afghanistan Troops Include Pentagon Slogans
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB4AD9QQCE.html
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Unlike earlier wars, nearly all
Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed
in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like
operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public
support for the conflicts.
Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told
they have the option to have the government-furnished
headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom"
or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge,
whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere.
A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.
The vast majority of military gravestones from other
eras are inscribed with just the basic, required
information: name, rank, military branch, date of
death and, if applicable, the war and foreign
country in which the person served.
Families are supposed to have final approval over what
goes on the tombstones. That hasn't always happened.
Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was
killed in Iraq in June 2004, said "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
ended up on his government-supplied headstone in
Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.
"I was a little taken aback," Robert McCaffrey said,
describing his reaction when he first saw the operation
name on Patrick's tombstone. "They certainly didn't ask
my wife; they didn't ask me." He said Patrick's widow
told him she had not been asked either.
"In one way, I feel it's taking advantage to a small degree,"
McCaffrey said. "Patrick did not want to be there,
that is a definite fact."
The owner of the company that has been making
gravestones for Arlington and other national
cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.
"It just seems a little brazen that that's put
on stones," said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite
Industries of Vermont. "It seems like it might
be connected to politics."
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it isn't.
"The headstone is not a PR purpose. It is to let
the country know and the people that visit the
cemetery know who served this country and made
the country free for us," VA official Steve Muro said.
Since 1997, the government has been paying for
virtually everything inscribed on the gravestones.
Before that, families had to pay the gravestone
makers separately for any inscription beyond the basics.
It wasn't until the invasion of Iraq in March 2003
that the department instructed national cemetery
directors and funeral homes across the country to
advise families of fallen soldiers and Marines that
they could have operation names like "Enduring Freedom"
or "Iraqi Freedom" included on the headstones.
VA officials say neither the Pentagon nor White House
exerted any pressure to get families to include
the operation names. They say families always had
the option of including information like battle or
operation names, but didn't always know it.
"It's just the right thing to do and it always has
been, but it hasn't always been followed," said
Dave Schettler, director of the VA's memorial
programs service.
VA officials say they don't know how many families
of the more than 2,000 soldiers and Marines who
have died in Iraq and Afghanistan have opted to
include the operation names.
At Arlington, the nation's most prestigious national
cemetery, all but a few of the 193 gravestones of
Iraq and Afghanistan dead carry the operation names.
War casualties are also buried in many of the 121
other national cemeteries and numerous state and
private graveyards.
The interment service supervisor at Arlington,
Vicki Tanner, said cemetery representatives show
families a mock-up of the headstone with
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" or "Operation Enduring Freedom"
already included, and ask their approval.
Former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., who lost both legs
and an arm in Vietnam and headed the Veterans Administration
under President Carter, called the practice
"a little bit of glorified advertising."
"I think it's a little bit of gilding the lily,"
Cleland said, while insisting that he's not
criticizing families who want that information included.
"Most of the headstones out there at Arlington
and around the nation just say World War II or
Korea or Vietnam, one simple statement," he said.
"It's not, shall we say, a designated theme or
a designated operation by somebody in the Pentagon.
It is what it is. And I think there's power in simplicity."
The Pentagon in the late 1980s began selecting
operation names with themes that would help
generate public support for conflicts.
Gregory C. Sieminski, an Army officer writing in a
1995 Army War College publication, said the Pentagon
decision to call the 1989 invasion of Panama
"Operation Just Cause" initiated a trend of
naming operations "with an eye toward shaping
domestic and international perceptions about
the activities they describe."
Mainline veterans groups are taking the change
in stride. American Legion spokesman Donald Mooney
said the organization hasn't heard any complaints
from its members.
"I'm concerned that we do what the families want,"
said Bob Wallace, executive director of Veterans
of Foreign Wars. "I don't think there's any
critical motivation behind this."
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Sick desecration.
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