National Security

What War Do You Want Listed On Your Soldier's Grave?

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | October 12, 2010 | +

Good piece in the Washington Post this morning. The story is buried in the Metro section when it really should be on Page One. It has to do with the engravings on troops’ grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery, the nation’s troubled final resting place for its honored dead. It tell us something about the Army we’d rather not know.

The Army runs the place (at least for now — seems the service is having trouble tracking where the graves of some of the 300,000 buried there actually are). Its standard grave stone language for troops killed in the Afghan war is “Operation Enduring Freedom”. Those killed in Iraq have “Operation Iraqi Freedom” on theirs. Of course, now that the PR handle for that effort is “Operation New Dawn,” that could end up on future markers.

I can imagine a young child visiting her father’s — and, more importantly, grandfather’s — grave years from now and wondering what “Operation Enduring Freedom” means. Fair question. It seems the Army is more concerned with making some ill-defined point than remembering where Dad or Grand-dad gave his last full measure of devotion.

The VA, which runs most of the nation’s veterans’ cemeteries, goes with the tried and true, as Arlington did until recent conflicts: Afghanistan and Iraq are listed on the VA’s markers, like their older brothers: Vietnam, World War II, &c.

This is part of the Army’s weird preoccupation with nomenclature, which now includes calling every soldier a “hero” and a “warrior.” Many are, but many aren’t, and we tarnish the real ones when we paint them all that way. The Army takes pride in developing straight shooters on the battlefield, and it should take the same approach to honoring its dead.

Related Topics: arlington national cemetery, army, National Security

  • Latest on Battleland

    Army photo / Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod
    Afghanistan May 16, 2012

    Humpin’ It…And Jammin’ It…

    Reuters
    Pacific May 16, 2012

    China’s ‘Security Dilemma’ Risks Arms Race in Asia

    TOKYO – A shooting war with China may not be inevitable, but a dangerous arms escalation seems a dead certainty. That’s the take from a rare public discussion here this week among naval experts from Japan, the U.S. and China.

    Chris Hondros / Getty Images
    Military Mental Health May 16, 2012

    Mental Ills Top Reason U.S. Troops Now Hospitalized

    Four of the top five non-combat medical conditions sending troops to the hospital in 2011 were mental ailments, the Pentagon reports:

  • nflfoghorn

    How ’bout Operation “Makes Politicians Look Good”?

  • newfreedomblog

    “Operation New Dawn,”

    .
    That is officially “Obama’s War”, right Mr Thompson?

  • nflfoghorn

    Operation “Mission Accomplished – Oops”

  • nflfoghorn

    …more accurate

  • michaelfury
  • newfreedomblog

    How about a story on how our military men and women are being kept from casting their votes, Mr Thompson?
    .
    http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/11/2010-10-11_board_of_elections_gaff_may_nullify_new_york_soldiers_overseas_absentee_ballots.html

  • m0mentom0ri

    For most people, especially the friends and family we have fighting there, its America at war.
    .
    Not everything is viewed through a partisan lens. IEDs don’t ask what party you’re registered with before they blow up. If you can’t let go of your hatred of Obama for one moment, at least have some respect for the soldiers.

  • afguy

    Actually, given a choice, many would prefer that NO war be listed on their grave marker.
    .
    But dying of old age with your grand-kids around you is just soooo over-rated.

  • GivenUp

    amen

  • apr2563

    When I saw the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, I immediately was in tears seeing the sea of gravestones at Normandy. The significance of a military grave site is overwhelming. It should never be violated by using it as a means to make a political statement.

  • herby002

    apr,
    Again, I agree. I had never given it much thought. I went to the burial ceremonies in Riverside Veterans Cemetary of my uncle and his wife, my aunt, who both served in WWII. (He was a SeaBee; she was a WAAC.)Their grave markers list their birth/death dates & service dates – nothing about the various campaigns during which they served.
    I think that’s appropriate. This business of listing the “missions” during which they served can get out of hand. Some veterans fought in WWII, Korea, and VietNam, but not all the time in combat (support, staff, etc.), so how can you fit all the details on a bronze plaque? Best to list the dates of service.
    Besides, with all the undeclared battles/wars as “missions” we send out our troops on nowadays, a career “warrior” can rack up quite a list of stuff he/she was a part of, there’s no way it would fit on a burial plaque.
    Note: I was a US Army soldier. I was not a hero. I was not a warrior; some soldiers who were in elite units considered themselves warriors, but I always thought that only experience in combat would test their “warrioribility”.

  • afguy

    herby002,
    .
    Some of the troops assigned to some of the more sensitive rapid response elements may not even get much of anything.
    .
    Since even the fact that they are deployed on a very classified mission is not to be mentioned, if they are killed on one of those, their death may be listed as a “training accident”.
    .
    Their families will only know that they spent a LOT of time away from home, left with no notice, and that they could not find out ANYTHING from their unit when the spouse didn’t come home for supper (or, indeed, for many many days).
    .
    It takes a strong marriage to withstand that much uncertainty and doubt. Many can’t. Mates just become sure that SOMETHING is going on, and the spouse can’t defend themselves with hard information when they come back to an angry, resentful wife or husband.

blog comments powered by Disqus