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PolWatch
08-18-2015, 09:50 AM
I don't know how this happened but I hope Veteran's organizations everywhere find out and stop this disrespect!

'The federal Department of Veterans Affairs' inspector general is investigating reports that a southern Missouri patio and staircase is made out of military gravestones.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1TNNJI8) reports that Navy veteran Ed Harkreader of Mountain Home, Arkansas, posted on social media last week photographs of the arrangement he found on property in Ozark County, near the Arkansas line.
Chris Erbe is a spokesman for the National Cemetery Administration in Washington. He says the VA's inspector general's office is investigating. Erbe adds that military headstones periodically are replaced, but old stones are supposed to be destroyed.
The Post-Dispatch reports that a check of online grave services indicates some of the stones were for gravesites in California, Alabama and Texas.'

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/08/military_gravestones_used_to_b.html#incart_river
https://scontent-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/p180x540/11218176_10153195654622737_5722490319556163066_n.j pg?oh=31c164231f786c71630a1e4c526002da&oe=567D0714

https://scontent-atl1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/p180x540/11825836_10153195654672737_2668312577500420884_n.j pg?oh=d7a522f59521ff01857e2880f21dca6b&oe=5640AA14

Safety
08-18-2015, 09:53 AM
........wow. Who's bright idea was this?

del
08-18-2015, 09:54 AM
i'm building a gazebo using copies of the benghazi investigation reports.

Safety
08-18-2015, 09:57 AM
i'm building a gazebo using copies of the benghazi investigation reports.

Damn, you making it to fallout shelter specs?

nathanbforrest45
08-18-2015, 10:07 AM
The builder could have done this as a sign of respect but personally I think he did it as a sign that he is an asshole.

Common
08-18-2015, 10:08 AM
Wow jail that mutt, you do not walk on gravestones and disrespect them veteran or not.

Captain Obvious
08-18-2015, 10:12 AM
Call it a hunch but I'm betting this guy has a confederate flag on his property somewhere, a skullet and dons a wife beater, and a cane.

Safety
08-18-2015, 10:17 AM
Call it a hunch but I'm betting this guy has a confederate flag on his property somewhere, a skullet and dons a wife beater, and a cane.

You have a name also? :rofl:

nathanbforrest45
08-18-2015, 10:24 AM
You have a name also? :rofl:


Cigar

Captain Obvious
08-18-2015, 11:04 AM
You have a name also? :rofl:

No, but I'm also pretty sure it's not polysyllabic.

southwest88
08-18-2015, 11:15 AM
Wow jail that mutt, you do not walk on gravestones and disrespect them veteran or not.

Charge him or her - misappropriation of (federal?) property, theft, conversion of property (if the gravestones were supposed to have been destroyed), likely interstate transportation stolen/converted goods. Assuming a competent court can find him/her guilty, I think an appropriate term would be 5-10 years @ hard labor - making nice pebbles out of all the gravestones. We can use the product to landscape veteran's cemeteries.

A win-win for everybody who counts.

Captain Obvious
08-18-2015, 11:23 AM
He wanted something different to accent his jewskin sliding glass door curtains.

Green Arrow
08-18-2015, 11:36 AM
String him up.

sachem
08-18-2015, 11:49 AM
He wanted something different to accent his jewskin sliding glass door curtains.:(

sachem
08-18-2015, 11:50 AM
He certainly is disrespectful and an asshole.

Captain Obvious
08-20-2015, 10:23 AM
follow-up

http://wtkr.com/2015/08/19/man-builds-patio-with-dumped-military-headstones/


A Navy veteran found out about it and posted pictures on social media, creating an outcry to get the stones removed.

The homeowner is now apologizing.

“I took advantage of something that shouldn’t have been taken advantage of. Free scraps stolen to make a small patio out of. Okay it go… I just used them… Its all I had. That’s it,” says the homeowner.

The homeowner says nearly a decade ago, he got the headstones from a now defunct monument company. He says he used the headstones to make a patio for his mom who fell.

“I was just making something out of nothing. 90 percent of them are broken they were never in a cemetery.

They went from the monument to the landfill. There were mistakes. I didn’t know.”

The gravestones caught the eye of a realtor who told Navy veteran Ed Harkreader.

He, along with an Ozarks County deputy took a news crew down to the property.

“These represent a soldier, a sailor, airman, someone who served our county and died.

They aren’t here to take care of a situation we found out about and it’s up to somebody else to pick up the slack,” said Harkreader.

The homeowner says he didn’t think what he was doing could be offensive to some.

He first said the gravestones would be staying.

“I can’t move them. Obviously… I can’t move them. I am sorry.”

“If he needs help, we will be happy to get the Patriot Guard out here with a dump truck and we will load the stones and get them out of here,” says Harkreader.

The homeowner did change his mind and admits making a mistake.

“I ain’t blaming nobody for nothing but me. I took them out of the landfill.”

There are close to 150 headstones on the patio.

The business where the homeowner says the gravestones were originally from say that they were rejected by the government and discarded.

Cletus
08-20-2015, 11:08 AM
Much ado about nothing.

Green Arrow
08-20-2015, 11:21 AM
Much ado about nothing.

This seems to be a common theme with you.

Private Pickle
08-20-2015, 11:26 AM
Lame. All this for unused, rejected grave stones that someone got out of a landfill.

I would have kept the patio and told any butt hurt vets that showed up on my doorstep with the media to fuck the fuck off.

Cletus
08-20-2015, 12:06 PM
This seems to be a common theme with you.

I just did not get off on phony rage and righteous indignation. The guy used a bunch of junk headstones to make something useful. He didn't steal them from gravesites. They were DoD REJECTS. Would it be better if they were taking up space in a landfill, serving no useful purpose?

Look, I spent a long time in the Army and I think it is great that Veterans are now receiving a measure of respect from the civilian populace that was missing for many years, but some of what I read and see is way over the top, almost like people are trying to overcompensate for all the years Vets were just kind of blown off by most people. Being a veteran does not make you a saint. It doesn't make you special. It should earn you the respect deserved by someone who stepped up to the plate and did his duty to his country and her citizens. That is it.

The word "hero" is so overused these days, it has become almost meaningless. You are not a hero for showing up and doing your job. If you want to see what a hero really is, look up a guy named Robert Howard or a guy named Nick Rowe. They define the word. I had the honor of working with both of them at different times in my years in the machine.

People go into the various branches of the armed services for a multitude of reasons. Some are ideological. Some are financial. Some see it as a stepping stone to a civilian career. Some see it as a way to get away from whatever their life was like before. Most people who go in never fire a shot in anger or experience a round smacking into the concrete next to them. Most walk away from their time in the service a little taller, a lot more mature, and hopefully some idea of what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Some leave the service broken. Some come home in a box. That is just the way it is.

All this cheerleading is nice for about 20 minutes. After that, most guys just want to be left alone to do what they need to do. Veterans are not circus animals to be put on display and get clapped at for doing tricks. They don't need or even want to be taken care of for life. They want to earn their way like everyone else. Those who suffer grievous injury in the line of duty and are rendered incapable of living normal lives should absolutely be cared for. Everybody else got paid for their service. As long as the government lives up to its end of the bargain and delivers on any promises made to the Vet at the time of enlistment, everybody is square. There doesn't need to be any more than that.

I don't know... maybe it serves some purpose for people to go to extremes in "supporting our veterans". Maybe it makes them feel better about themselves or something. Personally, after about the second or third time a total stranger walked up to me and said "Thank you for your service", I just wanted to tell him "I didn't do it for you."