I spotted this in the AM papers and it crushed me for many reasons. Kimberly Walker had one big love in life-Spongebob. She carried this to the grave after her murder by a fellow soldier in Colorado earlier this year on-of all days- Valentine’s. It gives a whole new meaning to a Saint Valentine’s day massacre.

After a vetting by cemetery personnel, her family’s request to have her interred with her signature Spongebob Squarepants headstone was approved. Suddenly, months later, the same cemetery hierarchy revoked their approval and summarily removed the headstone as well as a similar one planned for her twin sister who still serves in the Navy.

This is a classic example of political correctness run amuck. Obviously some tortured soul who came to mourn his or her relative was incensed that anyone (alive or dead) would inject humor into death and try to uplift fellow mourners’ depression. Hell, I’m just upset that someone planted the flag before I got there. If they’d let me have a Yosemite Sam headstone in  ANC, I’d be in high cotton.

All I can take away from this is that some who are on this side of the grass are a humorless cadre or that the cemetery folks in Ohio have absolutely no respect for Veterans. If we can’t take something of ourselves to our ultimate resting spot without raising the ire of those who dictate Groupthink, then perhaps fighting for America’s freedom is a hollow concept and an unworthy endeavour.

My heart goes out to her sister and family. No amount of apology, excuses and remuneration will ever make this one right. The appropriate response would be remorse, sackcloth/ashes on the forehead and rescinding the order posthaste. A prompt return of the icon is in order and to have it reinstalled promptly. I’d give them a bye on full military honors for the reinterment.

This last summer, my wife and I journeyed back to the Hugfest 2013 celebration held at Magnet, Indiana. I had the honor of now knowing where a pilot and friend was buried and made plans to visit his grave site in Winchester, Indiana. We made one error of judgement. We arrived on a Sunday and there was no one available to direct us to his burial site at Fountain Lawn Cemetery. After scrambling for several hours, we finally found the groundskeeper who aided us and located it. In the intervening two or so hours, we scoured thousands of headstones in the cemetery looking futilely for his. During this search, I came across a grieving mother who was sitting on a lawn chair “visiting” her  son who had recently perished in Afghanistan. She had his Teddy Bear and a pack of his favorite smokes in front of his headstone. When she discovered what Cupcake and I were looking for, she abruptly dropped her Sunday morning plans and began earnestly searching with us. While this has no direct comparison to what the grieving Walker family is going through, it amply demonstrates the closeness all Veterans families feel for each other and the common bond we share.

This is why I plucked this from the news to share with you. We are an elite 7% of America. It is a club closed to most if they choose not to join it early in life. One cannot put it on the Bucket List to do before one passes. It can not be added to a calendar to do during a summer vacation. It’s not like going back to college and getting that degree you put on hold in 1975. Once the boat sails, it’s gone. All the well-meaning soliloquies later on in life about “You know I came this close to signing up for the Army in 80 but there were more pressing issues I had to address.”, ring hollow.

Kimberly Walker stands tall because she had what I call “Veteran’s humor”-that irrepressible desire to express herself without worries of how others might perceive her. That her family saw fit to fulfill her wishes, and indeed, her sister following suit with a similar headstone, is testimony to why we are unique. The irreverent actions of the cemetery personnel to circumvent her and her family’s wishes is egregious beyond words. To perpetrate this abomination on a Veterans is beyond words.