Comrades in death

On my Memorial Day walk through Arlington NationalCemetery yesterday, I came across something I’d not seen before: monuments for multiple deaths in a single incident. The dead may not all actually buried there—some are elsewhere in ANC, and some lie in their home states—but many are united at Arlington as they were in the last moments on earth.

A couple are from Afghanistan:

This one, from the Korean War, does guard some of the remains of the men whose names are carved on the stone. The five had been thought to be MIA (which of course covers those who’ve been killed leaving no identifiable remains) in 1950. But in 2000 their remains were found on a site overlooking the Kuryong River, where they were last seen.

Although the monument dates their deaths as December 1953, that’s actually when their status was changed to presumed KIA. The action in which they probably died was on 27 November 1950. They were buried in various places in 2009, when this monument was erected.

Moving to another war, the men buried here died in 1971 when their helicopter was shot down. “Southeast Asia” in this instance means Cambodia. Their remains were only recovered in 2002, and they lie together as they served.

In a row of temporary grave markers, I noticed a cluster lined up next to a carved-out space in the grass.

Yes, there is another monument coming. Rainer S. Ramos, James L. Phipps, Warren Newton and Fred J. Secrist were shot down in a UH-1C gunship in Quang Tin province, South Vietnam, on 9 January 1968. Secrist’s was the only body found at the time, but in August 2011, human remains and personal effects were recovered from the site. They were eventually identified and rejoined Secrist in a group grave last June.

Perhaps next time I visit, their stone will be in place.