*Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans*

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[Zepps_News] #Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans

 

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5228649,00.html

 

*Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans*

 

 

*Tuesday August 23, 2005 9:01 PM*

 

*By DAVID PACE*

 

*Associated Press Writer*

 

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 nearly 2,000

soldiers and Marines who have died in Iraq or 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.''

 

---

 

On the Net:

 

Arlington National Cemetery: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org

 

VA's national cemetery program: http://www.cem.va.gov/

 

 

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