Around nation, gravesites of veterans in shocking disrepair

Fox News.com ^ | May 24, 2012 | Mike Jaccarino

[Kaslin]

Not all veterans' graves are maintained in a manner befitting the debt owed by a grateful nation

The final resting places for many of the men and women who fought America’s wars have fallen into shocking disrepair, with neglect, theft and vandalism prompting veterans groups to question the nation's commitment to honoring its dead soldiers.

Advocates say smaller federal, state, county and private cemeteries that contain the graves of service members are often poorly kept, marked by crumbling headstones, overgrown with weeds and littered with debris. Perhaps even worse, many veterans' gravesites have been targets of vandalism and theft.

“It’s a pattern that you’re seeing across the country right now," said Tim Tetz, national legislative director for the American Legion. "You have cemeteries being expanded or added to with less or the same number of people caring for the grounds.”

Vietnam veteran and retired Army Capt. Ronald Rulon told FoxNews.com he felt his heart drop when he heard that 200 bronze flag stands had been stolen from a local veterans' cemetery where many of his friends and fellow soldiers are buried.

[Prole]

From "Land of the Free" to "Land of the Freeloader."

This is why I don't really like my generation at all.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin.

[Kaslin]

You are welcome

[ansel12]

There are at least a couple veterans in this cemetery, I'm even thinking of being buried there since it kind of fascinates me, it is still in use, but as you can see, not a fancy place. Those little clumps of rocks you see scattered around, are graves that someone has taken the care to mark, old school style.

[toothless_elk]

it takes a special breed of lowlife to steal a bronze flag marker from a grave............

[SandRat]

Where it’s done right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix3ZfUtXCm4

Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery

1300 SouthBuffalo Soldier Trail
Sierra Vista, Arizona
(520) 458-7144

[Kaslin]

Thanks

[Kaslin]

Thanks

[Kaslin]

I think it’s a special breed of low life who steals anything from a grave

[unkus]

Where is this? Looks like Texas or Arizona.

[ansel12]

It is in New Mexico.

[NFHale]

When, under the guise of “fairness” and “social justice” the lowest common denominator of any society gets elevated above the people who actually do the living, and the working and the dying - that is, those that make society a better place, this is what happens...

As William Manchester said in “Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War”, “This is THAT kind of time.” - referring to the marking plaques commemorating the Americans who were forced on the Bataan Death March. Bronze plaques had once been set along the route, marking the distance, and how many people had died along the way.

Some lowlife assw*pes stole the plaques years later, when Manchester had returned to the Pacific to expunge the demons that had been haunting him all his life since his time there.

Yeah...he was right. This IS that kind of time as well.

Real swell place the liberals have created, ain’t it...

[unkus]

Near El Paso, I’d say.

[ansel12]

Pretty close, close enough to Texas that I am going to price a plot in it, although I will probably go with Houston National Cemetery.

[Hulka]

I’m in Texas, too, but truth be told, and this is just my thought on the subject, I selected my families cemetery in Minnesota to be buried in.

I truly love Texas but I choose Minnesota not so much for the family connection but because I think in the not-so-distant future southern Texas (along with the entire American southwest) will become some sort of quasi-Mexican state, if not a part of Mexico.

Consequently, I’d rather not be buried in Mexico and my grave subject to vandalism from La Raza or other hate-whitey types. (BTW, my family being from Sweden, my name would never be confused with a Mexican name).

Just my thought on the subject.

[ansel12]

Well I’m willing to nail together my own $50.00 box with wood from Lowes, and gather my own rocks for that unnamed, unadorned piece of ground you saw in NM, and I find a certain amount of appeal in that idea, so I will just have to think on it for awhile.

I sure don’t mind being buried in Texas and mostly prefer being buried in my natural home of Texas, I will always be a Texan, that is why I can entertain the possibility of being buried in New Mexico.

I lived in Minnesota and Wisconsin and never felt much there, Texas and New Mexico have soul, no matter the future, there is always a different and unknown future regardless of what dirt your bones are turning to dust in.