Arlington Cemetery Removing War Monuments is Evicting Honor Not Racism - Dishonors War-Dead

Listen to the voice of the war-dead laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery that oppose the removal of any war memorial that reminds future generations of the futility, horrors, and valor of the warfighter. 

I am a US Army veteran, who also served with the 3rd US Infantry [The Old Guard], Ft. Myer, Va. I helped fellow soldiers study for the Tomb Guard test, memorizing facts and who's who, and history of ANC.

I participated and witnessed countless full honor funerals. I experienced the weeping of widowed wives and silent mourning of heartbroken mothers. I buried friends there and kept a keen eye that the Honor Guard was flawless. I participated in the honor ceremony for PFC Israel Montalvo, an Infantryman, veteran of the Korean War, serving with the gallant 65th Infantry Regiment of Puerto Rico, [The Borinqueneers]. We presented a wreath honoring PFC Felix Longoria, a Viet-Nam soldier denied military burial for political reasons in Texas, so was interred at ANC with full military honors.

I witnessed a ceremony awarding the Unknown Soldiers interred at the Tomb, the highest medal for valor from the European Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem - Knights Templar, delivered by hand from their royal Patron Princess Elisabeth of Germany, accompanied by a full contingent of decorated Knights from Europe and the US Priories.

All of this has trained and infused within me the unerring ideals of chivalry and that Arlington National Cemetery is sacrosanct.  It is the American military's and their families' Holy Ground. Politics are not allowed there.  It is about reverence, honor, and unflinching respect for the soldiers who are laid to rest there. 

This sanctimonious policy hoisted upon the US Military leadership is anathema to the ideals of chivalry, valor, and honor due the simple soldier. It is vomitous permitting noble Forts to be capriciously renamed to satisfy fickle politicians.

Now, to step foot onto this hallowed ground just to advance a soulless political agenda has stirred the righteous anger of the living and awakened the undisturbed sleep of the spirits resting there. The headstones laid out in concentric circles surrounding the Monument with Lady Victory removing her laurel wreath, hand extended and bowed head in mourning are marked  UNKNOWN! 

These confederate soldiers resting there are unknown soldiers, who not only lost their lives in service to their home States, but they also lost their identities. They were granted amnesty to restore their honor. They were granted a plot of Virginia Earth to lay their broken bodies with dignity.  They were granted a monument to salute them in perpetuity, that they may know eternal rest in small recompense from their victors by affording them this small mercy. 

All this was the manifestation of President Lincoln's promise to bind the Nation's wounds.  It is enough that Arlington was confiscated from General Robert E. Lee to use to bury Civil War soldiers in his own time. This is a monument designed to convey respect to warfighters, even if they were once your enemy, they are your countrymen, be not so petty to begrudge them this final salute.

Whoever was responsible for this blatant disrespect will be haunted nightly by the ghosts they unloose from their graves by this dishonor.  If you have the vision, look and see how that monument is surrounded by the risen spirits of all the war-dead in Arlington.  Still wearing their uniforms in full splendor. 

Rifles with bayonets fixed at port arms, shoulder to shoulder, encircle that piece of ground, ready to fight for it, as they did on the battlefield and now their final resting place. The three unknown soldiers from the Tomb are awakened from their rest in honored glory.  JFK and Audie Murphy are on watch duty, alongside PFC Felix Longoria and  PFC Israel Montalvo, and all those who were buried at Section 65, Section 66, Section 21. To dishonor one, is to dishonor them all.  

They are enraged by this slight, you should all be as well. There will always be a political protest to war policy.  That debate is done under the Capitol Dome NOT Arlington National Cemetery or anywhere else that honors our warfighters. 

If you disagree with the policy, take it up with the policy makers.  Let the lessons of war be a constant reminder, though the monuments erected for those who were destroyed, in a war they never started, over a policy they never created.   The spirit of the soldiers laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery are protesting this.  If you do not fight for us now, who will fight for you later?  They say; there will come a generation who will shame you for passively disgracing your war dead and feeling satisfied with passing the hat around for the wounded and homeless. In the name of Honor. Stop this travesty now!  Let their voices be heard on this topic as well. 

Anthony Melé

Sgt, US Army [1983]

New York