Posting #25: The Story about Arlington National Cemetery

The story:  The story about Arlington National Cemetery is that, as the final resting place for our national heroes, it is hallowed ground and only to be approached with solemnity.  The long, straight lines of uniformly bleached-white, same-sized tombstones for as far as the eye can see encourage hushed tones as the 400,000 stones testify to the numbers of Americans who have sacrificed their lives to the nation’s cause. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier affirms that no one is left unrecognized, and the cemetery’s proximity to the nation’s government means it regularly hosts federal events acknowledging the dead.

 

My take on the story:  My father is buried at Arlington in Section 13.  He spent 37 years on active duty in the US Army, and two of those years—in Vietnam—led to his death at 58 years old.  As a combat helicopter pilot, he was directly exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange—by flying through the orange cloud, sitting on and transporting the barrels of herbicide—and it was that exposure that germinated the brain cancer that would eventually kill him, nearly twenty years later.  At least, that is what explains why my mother received a (very small) payment from the Agent Orange Settlement Fund.  We buried my father—with all of the full honors expected at Arlington for a career Army officer—more than 35 years ago.

As my father’s spouse, my mother may be buried there.  Two of my five siblings who served on active duty and retired are eligible to be buried there.  (The other four of us who served on active duty did not retire and so are not eligible.) Two of my siblings’ spouses are eligible to be buried at Arlington.

So call me biased.

I appreciate that the cemetery is open to the public.  But it is a controlled open, operated as it is by the US Army since 1864.  Bicycles, scooters, and vehicles cannot be brought onto the 639 acres, visitors must be physically screened and show an ID to enter, and things like firearms, tasers, “unauthorized media/photography equipment,” and overly-large flags are prohibited from being brought onto the grounds. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded 24/7 by US Army “The Old Guard” “sentinels.”  Every year, the cemetery has over 6500 burials, 4000 ceremonies and 3.5 million visitors, and for the last four years has been overseen by the Department of the Army Executive Director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and Army National Military Cemeteries, Ms. Karen Durham-Aguilera.

With that huge number of moving parts—burials, tourists, ceremonies, guards—and being administered by the US Army, I understand the strict protocols governing the cemetery’s operation. In attempting to honor ALL of the servicepeople who have died, it is committed to being non-partisan.  And that requires regulation. 

One way the cemetery tries to honor all is by preventing political activity via the media.  You can imagine what a seductive backdrop the cemetery would make for presidential political campaigns, and the US Army uses a federal law that prevents that: the Hatch Act.  In its “Media Policy for Army National Military Cemeteries,” the Department of the Army memo outlines in Section 5.a.8 that:

Filming or photographing will not be permitted if it conveys the impression that cemetery officials or any visitor or family member is endorsing any product, service or organization. Additionally, ANC will not authorize any filming for partisan, political or fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act, 32 CFR 553, and AR 360-1.

Because of this policy, using Arlington for political campaign purposes almost never has happened since the advent of video.  But in his 2000 presidential campaign, veteran and former Vietnam POW Republican Senator John McCain mistakenly used Arlington as the backdrop for one of his biographical campaign ads.  (At that point, McCain’s admiral father and admiral grandfather were buried there; his mother has since been buried next to his father at Arlington. McCain is buried at the Naval Academy.) According to Snopes, McCain’s campaign had not requested permission to use the footage and the permission would have been denied because of the Department of the Army’s “ban on political and partisan filming and activity on the cemetery grounds.” Once he learned that the images were prohibited, McCain withdrew the ad and “sent the Army a letter saying the scenes would be cut. ‘I have asked my campaign to redesign the ad to omit the relevant footage so as to not detract from my reverence for those who served,’ McCain wrote.”

So in 1999, McCain erred in using the footage, admitted his mistake, and deleted the footage from his campaign ad out of “reverence.”     

But in 2024, 5-time draft-dodger, mocker of John McCain, and he who wants to be the military Commander-in-Chief, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, did not err, admit, or delete.

Instead, he defiantly and knowingly:

·      violated federal law by exploiting Arlington for his campaign;

·      posted video content to TikTok and used still photographs in campaign ads;

·      and in his typical way, doubled down on insisting he and his campaign had done nothing wrong and that, contrary to many witnesses and a US Army statement, there was no “incident” at the cemetery.

Here’s what happened:

On August 26, 2024, Trump was invited by two families to attend a memorial service at Arlington for their two family members who died when the US withdrew from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021.  (Trump’s policies were subsequently held responsible for the calamity, but the families must have ignored that inconvenience.)  To avoid the appearance of partisanship, “Cemetery officials ‘told Trump's team that he could come in his personal capacity and bring personal aides, but not campaign staff,’ the Washington Post reports.” Defiantly, Trump brought campaign staff anyway.

Trump and the families laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with Trump’s campaign members apparently filming the whole while.  Then, though the Trump campaign had been told outside cameras were prohibited, they proceeded to Section 60—where servicemembers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried—with cameras in tow. Apparently, the campaign’s intent was to capture images of Trump posing with the families at their family members’ headstones.  

To avoid any appearance of partisanship, only Arlington cemetery staff are permitted to take photographs and video intended for media use.  When Trump’s entourage was confronted by a cemetery official trying to enforce this rule as they brought their own cameras into the highly sensitive Section 60, two members of the campaign staff verbally abused and then pushed the cemetery official aside.

(Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, later said that the official was “suffering from a mental health episode.”  Another campaign staffer, Chris La Civita, he who is featured in my posting about stolen valor, commented that the official was a “despicable individual.”  Apparently, bullies that these Trump campaign staffers are, all they have in their campaign toolkits are personal, ad hominin attacks.  What a surprise.)

The campaign staff proceeded to video and photograph the ceremony and Trump’s visit to gravesites in Section 60 and, against federal law, DoD policy, and US Army regulations, used the images in partisan campaign ads. 

The US Army issued a statement that confirmed the cemetery official’s story that she was assaulted and had called the police. She chose not to press charges, however, out of fear of retaliation from Trump supporters. And the family members who invited Trump said they were okay with the images his campaign photographed and used…but they are not in a position to suspend the rules, rules that apply to us ALL.  They also do not have the power to grant permission for the photographing of the headstones on either side of their loved ones, stones which show clearly the names of the person whose graves they mark.

So what?

At Arlington, it is not debatable that the site can be used for political campaigning: it may not be used. 

But Trump—who wants to be the military’s Commander-in Chief but who consistently and contemptuously has viewed the military as a tool to be USED by him (even though he calls them “suckers” and “losers”)—refuses to accept that rules apply to him.

Rules be damned.

In these postings, I try to be the dispassionate and thoughtful scholar I am. I provide lots of evidence to bolster my claims, and I carefully try to make these complex subjects understandable to readers less familiar with military life.  I am critical, but as an insider, I have a uniquely informed perspective.  Still, I resist becoming personal and expressing emotional responses to the subjects I’m writing about. 

This is different. 

Trump’s violent defilement of Arlington takes me over the edge and beyond the pale.  It’s not just that Trump knowingly violated the rules and refuses to be accountable for that.  It’s not just his faux gravity at the laying of the wreaths, knowing what he thinks about military servicepeople.  It’s not just that his (male) campaign staffers roughed up a (female) cemetery official when she tried to enforce the rules.  It’s not just that Trump’s campaign later defamed her with claims of mental illness or being “despicable.”  And it’s not just that Trump elected to use the moving and still images for campaign ads.   

It’s his pose ABOVE THE GRAVES OF PEOPLE IN UNIFORM WHO DIED FOR THIS COUNTRY.  When he should be solemn and grave, Trump’s smarmy smile and thumbs-up posture—a posture that he assumes in ANY photo under ANY conditions—desecrates the gravesites of every person buried there and dishonors the service, the lives, the families, and the deaths of all 400,000. 

Including my beloved father.