Look at the efforts that were made, and still are to a degree, at
identifying and returning the remains of our Vietnam War dead.
I don't believe that I've ever heard the term 'war grave' applied to any
particular site of that conflict. I may have missed the point, but I
thought that the point was to bring them (our dead soldiers) back, or place
them in recognized hallowed ground. The equipment in which they lost their
lives was not the object of the effort. Although salvage of the equipment
was done to eliminate it being a source of materials for the enemy during
the Vietnam War to a much larger extent than earlier ones I think.
War dead of the past have been given much more notice it seems lately. Look
at the raising of the CSS Hunley, the civil war submarine that had its crew
still inside. The reburial of the black soldiers found in the mass grave in
the Carolinas a few years ago. Etc.
The effort of preservation of the hardware should never outweigh the effort
made to dignify and respect the men that died using it.
My opinion for what it's worth.
John Doherty
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