Section 60 In Arlington National Cemetery -- 2
by Cora Wandel
Title
Section 60 In Arlington National Cemetery -- 2
Artist
Cora Wandel
Medium
Photograph
Description
Section 60 is the burying ground in Arlington National Cemetery for over 900 Iraq and Afghanistan war dead, beginning with Russell Rippetoe, the first casualty from Iraq in 2003. In the midst of row after row of identical white tombstones is one for Army Major Harold J. Greene, who died in Afghanistan in 2014, and is the highest-ranking service member killed in an American war since Vietnam in 1972. Also in Section 60 rests Capt. Humayun Khan, an heroic but relatively unknown soldier killed in Iraq in 2004, who gained world-wide attention following the appearance of his grieving parents at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. These are just three of the 900 people buried in this section, and they each have their own powerful story to tell, but it is those of us who are living that need to tell it as best we can. And then there are the women. I was surprised and impressed and greatly humbled to walk among the tombstones and see the number of women killed in service to their country. This reflects the time we live in and the advances women have made, even in war. Section 60 is full of tombstones adorned with a lot of pictures of the dead, their teddy bears, toys, other lifetime trinkets, and balloons commemorating birthdays and other life events, and flowers, a lot of flowers. There is not yet a national memorial erected to honor the dead of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but for the time being, and perhaps forever, it is Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery.
Uploaded
November 13th, 2015
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