Arlington, Va. – Unlike in 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 uses to promote support for the conflicts.
Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option of having the federally furnished headstones engraved with “Operation Enduring Freedom” or “Operation Iraqi Freedom” at no extra charge, whether the deceased is buried in Arlington or elsewhere.
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 is etched. 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. Patrick’s widow hadn’t 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 Granite Industries of Vermont, which 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. “It seems like it might be connected to politics.”
Steve Muro of 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.”
