Bob CollinsYou’ll probably see more of this picture in newspapers and on websites. It’s the headstone of the soldier whose parents have been criticized by Donald Trump.
How do photojournalists get a picture like that? By arriving en masse at Arlington National Cemetery and then sprawling all over the final resting place of Darrell Schumann.
Marine Lance Cpl. Darrell J. Schumann’s story should have gotten more than a little attention since his death after fighting in Fallujah, Iraq more than 11 years ago. He was on his way to the Syrian border when his helicopter crashed.
But the board of the Shrine of Memory at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Va., refused to put his name on the memorial. It’s only for people who died in combat, they said.
“To say somebody who was shot in a battle is more deserving to be put on the wall than someone who was flying into that combat zone who crashes is just absurd,” the former commandant of the Virginia VFW said.
Schumann’s dad has waged a one-man campaign against the absurdity and tone-deafness of the politicians and bigshots.
After a few years, they put up a temporary plaque at the site of the memorial. That’s not good enough.
“On my first trip, the room where the plaques are kept was closed, the light was out and the room was filled with tables and chairs,” Rick Schumann told the Hampton (VA.) Daily Press in 2013. “It resembled a break room — not a place to honor fallen heroes.”
A bill to allow Lance Cpl. Darrell J. Schumann’s name to be inscribed on the memorial advanced in the Virginia state senate in January.
It seems the respectful thing to do.
So would getting off the guy’s grave just because you need a picture.
