Traditionally, gravestones for Americans killed in combat have included the minimum information necessary to identify the fallen soldier, sailor, airman or marine.
Almost all the headstones for the more than 2,000 troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, however, are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.
Families are being told they have the option to have the government-supplied headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge, whether their family members are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.
Arlington was the first US military cemetery and generally is considered the most prestigious.
A huge majority of military gravestones from other eras are inscribed with name, rank, military branch, date of death and, if applicable, the war and foreign country in which the person served and died.
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 last year, said "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended up on his government-supplied headstone without family approval.
"I was a little taken aback," Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he saw the operation name on his son'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," departmental 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.
Department of Veterans Affairs officials say neither the Defense Department nor the White House exerted any pressure to get families to include 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 Department of Veterans Affairs' memorial programs service.
Departmental officials say they have no record of how many families have opted to include the operation names.
At Arlington, all but a few of the 193 gravestones of Iraq and Afghanistan dead carry the operation names.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of