The Mercenary’s Cookbook

We are all probably familiar with the government policy of not allowing photography of the caskets returning from Iraq. Regardless of how one feels about that, this story struck me as a bit ridiculous.

Gina Gray was the director of public affairs at Arlington National Cemetery. I say was because she was fired. The cause of the firing is what is so disturbing. Apparently cemetery officials were installing new restrictions on the coverage of funerals of those who died in Iraq.

Here’s the thing, though: the family granted permission to have the funeral filmed. Gina Gray honored the family’s wishes, which is why she got fired:

Six weeks after The Washington Post reported her efforts to restore media coverage of funerals, Gray was demoted. Twelve days ago, the Army fired her.

“Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I’m sure I’d still be there,” said the jobless Gray, who, over lunch yesterday in Crystal City, recounted what she is certain is her retaliatory dismissal. “It’s about doing the right thing.”

She is apparently the fourth director in the past four years. But there’s more:

Gray contends that Higginbotham [the cemetery's deputy superintendent] has been calling the families of the dead to encourage them not to allow media coverage at the funerals — a charge confirmed by a high-ranking official at Arlington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Gray says Higginbotham told staff members that he called the family of the next soldier scheduled for burial at Arlington and that the family, which had originally approved coverage, had changed its mind. Gray charges that Higginbotham admitted he had been making such calls to families for a year and said that the families “appreciated him keeping the media out.”

But here’s the kicker. When she got her termination e-mail from her supervisor, Phyllis White, it said she ”failed to act in an inappropriate manner.”