Vet’s SpongeBob headstone removed
From Fox News the story of the family of Corporal Kimberly Walker, a veteran of two tours in Iraq, battles the Spring Grove Cemetery over the family’s choice of a head stone for the twenty-eight-year-old who was found strangled and beaten in a hotel room in Colorado Springs on Valentine’s Day. It appears that the Cemetery had approved the headstone initially and then withdrew that approval of the seven-foot monument after it was installed along with an exact duplicate for Walker’s sister.
“We’ve decided that they aren’t appropriate for our historic cemetery and they can’t be displayed here,” Freytag said, adding that the employee who approved the headstones made an inexplicable error in judgment, given the cemetery’s traditional, stately appearance.
He acknowledged that the cemetery is at fault and that staff members would be meeting with Walker’s family on Tuesday to try to find a solution, which could include a more traditional gravestone bearing small likeness of the character.
Freytag also said Spring Grove is prepared to reimburse the family for each headstone, which cost a combined $26,000, and pay for new ones.
“I feel terrible that it got to this point but I’m hoping we can come out at the other end of the tunnel with a solution,” he said.
The only opinion that I have over this is that the Cemetery probably shouldn’t have approved it in the first place, but since they did, they need to abide by that decision. In the Greater Scheme of Things, a Sponge Bob headstone probably doesn’t effect most people’s GIS meter, but the cemetery’s word does. By the way, Sponge Bob’s flag is on backward, the 82d patch is incomplete, and if she was a corporal, why is SB wearing sergeant stripes? Yeah, I couldn’t help myself.
Category: Veterans Issues
Wtf
I’m sorry whomever decided that headstone was appropriate is flipping retarded. For a 28 year old veteran? Good fucking grief America what the hell has happened to you.
At least the cemetery admits that their employee made an error and are fronting the cost to try to find an acceptable solution. Less sensitive businesses may have said “Too bad, so sad.”
The ynever should have approved it to begin with, and unless the family misrepresented just how god awful that thing looks they should not have gone back on their word… How anyone could approve of two 7 foot sponge bobs… WTF
At what point did this seem like a good idea and who thinks hey I know Sponge Bob in uniform for a headstone and what jackleg employee looked at the design and said sure that will be cool.
I doubt that they received permission from the copyright owners to us SpongeBob’s likeness. The Nicklelodeon lawyers will have a field day with this one.
Yes, the cemetery screwed up in the first place. But, they seem to be bending over backwards to accommodate the family, including paying them for the godawful headstones.
I want my tombstone to bear the likeness of Rocky The Flaming Squirrel to commemorate my exotic adventure with The Stunning Agency.
Jonn-
since 2003, nearly every Army soldier killed in action in a combat zone has been given a posthumous promotion.
@7
Dave,
Really? Do you have a source for that? Maybe I just can’t recall correctly.
Besides, when you say “soldiers”, do you literally mean Soldiers? Or are you generalizing the titles of the Armed Forces?
-M
@6
BTW
Thanks, Hack. There goes my morning coffee. Funny stuff.
Jonn, those can be interpreted as Corporal’s stripes if one considers the area inside the outline as stripes vice the outline. IMO, it’s ambiguous. But given the level of detail on the rest of the engraving, that doesn’t surprise me at all.
I have to side with the cemetery on this one. This tombstone is IMO not only inappropriate, but grossly so. FWIW: I cannot believe the family indicated they’d be putting up a pair of freaking 7-foot statues of Sponge Bob and that the cemetery approved the installation knowing that fact. And to their credit, the cemetery is indeed footing the bill for their admin error in approving it in the first place.
Right, cemetery effed up they acknowledge the error and are paying to rectify their error….I can find no fault with the cemetery on this issue.
I do find it odd that someone would believe the appropriate marker for all eternity for your loved one is a giant aluminum or steel sponge bob monument….to each their own I guess…
That’s a shame. Just the idea of coming across a giant SpongeBob on Halloween….
@7 the soldier was not killed in combat
Heard a little blurb about this on the radio this morning. Evidently the family thought it a good idea because she was a huge Sponge Bob fan. Sounded almost like an obsession kind of thing. So, in the midst of grief, particularly given the fact that she was murdered, the focus of the family on something so ridiculous is understandable.
Yeah, I get rather squishy about grieving families. Cutting them more slack than is excusable at any other time just makes sense to me. Probably to the cemetery as well.
From an article right after her murder…
http://www.wlwt.com/news/local-news/cincinnati/Cincinnati-soldier-killed-in-Valentine-s-Day-fight/-/13549970/18999998/-/a206pe/-/index.html
It says that just prior to her murder she made E-5….
SB left arm ‘tattoo’ “24” ?
Explains it all doesn’t it?
Jeff Gordon is Gay
@1. What you said.
@ 1 and 17 DITTO!
I am going out on a limb here and might suggest a trailer park, Mountain Dew, few teeth, NASCAR and sister-cousins might be in play here!
Too bad a more dignified approach to rememberance was not employed. Call me crazy for being a traditionalist when it comes to honoring the dead!
Um, MCPO – you might want to read the article Old Tanker linked.
@18. Sorry, Chiefo, that limb snapped off. The decedent is Black, as in Afro-American, as in not a hillbilly. So, too, is the fellow on trial for her murder, her ex-boyfriend. So, too, is her twin sister who also was (and may still be in) the military.
Concerning AR 670-1, and whether Sponge Bob is in compliance, this sounds like a job for SMA Raymond Chandler. Chandler is well suited for the job. He is a parody of what a senior NCO should be, and slavish in his devotion to being a lap dog/boot licker for his masters Obumbles and Dempsey.
The first thing, SMA Chandler will do is make sure that gawd awful 24 tattoo is covered up.
OK dumb civilian puke question – but why is the flag done what I, looking at it typically left to right sees as backwards, on the uniform?
To all who took note,
OK …so I was not entirely correct.
Wrong is not a word that comes easy to me … however I will take your observations graciously!
Tragic case no doubt and I stand on my previous statement:
“Too bad a more dignified approach to rememberance was not employed. Call me crazy for being a traditionalist when it comes to honoring the dead!”
@7.
I think that only applies to E-4 and below.
Could be wrong, though.
At least the cemetery and the family appear to be working things out, or at least trying to instead of throwing mud.
James in Gulf Breeze: the flag is worn on the uniform with the canton (the blue field with stars) towards the wearer’s front. The flag is worn on the right shoulder. Therefore, the flag must be “reversed” from the usual view (canton at upper left) for the canton to be towards the front.
I put “reversed” in quotes as depending on the viewer’s location and/or wind direction, sometimes one sees a displayed US flag in “normal” view (canton at upper left) and sometimes sees it “reversed” (canton at upper right).
Hondo – Thank you!
Ambivalent on this one… the cemetary should NEVER have approved that abomination but at least they are trying to do the right thing. Then there is the “what the hell were they thinking?” about all concerned. My daughter loves Stictch…. but I’d slap her husband into next week if he proposed a blue alien tombstone.
I can certainly understand her family wanting to represent what she loved, and feel that grave markers should be whatever the family wants them to be, but wouldn’t it have been a better and longer lasting tribute to spend the $26,000 on a scholarship fund or start a foundation to support vets or something?
Other options could have been some of the new technology that imbeds videos, photos and/or recordings in the headstones.
I look at it this way–would a civilian cemetery have allowed a headstone like this?
Good–go there. A veteran’s cemetery is a place of solemnity and reverence, not fucking cartoons. Explain to the family that while we sympathize with their loss, there are others who might not appreciate such a display next to or near their loved ones.
Can I change my choice for my tombstone? Instead of Rocky The Flaming Squirrel, I want Frank Stallone. Not a Frank Stallone statue, I want Frank Stallone, in his bleached white rhinestone encrusted jumpsuit. Being dipped in bronze would be acceptable.
I just saw the link were the family is contesting the removal.
Guys, I have to be honest.
Is it tacky? Possibly. But who I am I to judge?
A lot of men/women have died in this fight.
It is not my family or daughter. Many folks judge death and deal with it in different ways.
I am on the sideline.
If that is what they want, then so be it.
As I said, not a fan of the style. But it is their business and tribute to their grief, then I have no issue.
I know this sounds hypocritical, but that is how I feel.
But again, GT, not appropriate for a veterans cemetery. If she was 4, and a private cemetery allowed it, have at it.
U-NI-FORM. KISS. Concepts such as that should not be lost on the family.
Looks alot like Mr. Peanut, without the monocle.