Buried Soldiers, Buried Coverage

Printer-friendly versionSend by email

"The former spokeswoman for Arlington National Cemetery says the facility's No. 2 official has been calling military families to try to talk them out of media coverage of their loved ones' funerals, despite his denials that he does so," reports William H. McMichael. "Gina Gray, who was fired June 27 after 2½ months on the job, said Deputy Director Thurman Higginbotham told her in early May that he had been making such calls for about a year -- while denying he did so at least three times, including once in an April 30 meeting with Pentagon reporters to discuss the cemetery's media policy." Gray said she reviewed the cemetery's paperwork for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 and found that 63 percent of the families agreed to media coverage. She says that her support for granting media access "led her supervisors to limit her authority, constantly track her comings and goings, occasionally refuse to reply to her e-mails or even speak to her and, finally, to fire her."