My son, Army Capt. Matthew J. August, was killed in action in Iraq in January 2004. That year, Cindy Sheehan and her ilk were protesting the war in Iraq near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Around that time, my wife took a plane trip. The lady in the seat next to her was gushing about how brave Ms. Sheehan was and wasn't it wonderful how she put up all those crosses with the names of the fallen. My wife softly explained that her son and three of his sergeants had been killed by an improvised explosive device, and that no one had ever asked her permission to use his name in a protest. Her fellow passenger was, needless to say, speechless for the rest of the flight.

In one of his few calls home, our son said he and his soldiers were trying to help the majority of Iraqi people overcome the effects of 30 years under a brutal dictator and fighting terrorists then and there so his nephews and nieces would not have to fight them somewhere else.

As for me, if I see an anti-war protester wearing my son's image on a T-shirt, he or she runs the risk of becoming an unintended casualty of war.

Richard J. August



Many anti-war protesters, including Cindy Sheehan, have seen the value of using the names of the fallen to spread their message. But when we are talking about thousands of names, there is no practical way to incorporate those names into anti-war gear unless some money changes hands. Very few anti-war protesters are prepared to write 2,600 names on a T-shirt by hand. But many are prepared to pay $18 for a T-shirt.


Dan Frazier
Flagstaff, Ariz.


Death doesn't erode privacy
As a member of the military, I must protest the use of the name of a fallen soldier, sailor, airman or Marine as a method of profit for someone other than his of her family. If I died in service, I surely wouldn't want anyone to profit from the use of my name without family permission, whether it be in protest of the war I died in or for any other purpose.


Americans place great value on privacy, and death should not take that right away from the deceased or his or her family. I don't think the words "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press" grants a person the freedom to make a buck on a T-shirt that takes my dead name in vain if I died in a controversial war, possibly using my name to support a cause contrary to my beliefs.


I serve in support of the Constitution and the First Amendment; I support the press's right to publicize the war dead as well as take photos of caskets returning from Iraq. But what gives anyone the right to photograph my funeral without my family's consent? And how could the First Amendment extend so far as to allow someone to profit because I died while serving my country?


Yvonne Levardi

Good post Gunny. It hits at the heart of the matter.

These sentiments deserve as much airtime as possible. Probably should have just posted the link but decided to just go ahead and lay them out here.

Gunny, it was not long and might have been hard to split and still have meaning.

Brilliant post. Sums up just how I feel too. Should teach these damn anti-war protesters a thing or two. Besides, they ought to look farther than their puritan ideals, at the mass-atrocities that the terrorists would commit if the American forces weren't there to stop them.