The Pentagon in the late 1980s began selecting operation names with themes that would help generate public support for conflicts. Now they're putting them on gravestones! Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they can have government-furnished headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge.
(Yahoo, where I read about this, has more details.) Some also just find it there which is a bit of a shock as 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.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says "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." And which country would that be? Iraq? Afghanistan? And how free is a country where you can be sent to fight in a place, kept there for longer than the normal tour ofduty, and then have Government advertising on your grave?
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