Families choose custom grave markers to honor veterans' service
Memorial Day was created to honor the service of the members of the military.
While veterans are entitled to a government-provided memorial, many relatives turn to local memorial makers to mark their loved ones' graves.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) furnishes upon request, and at no cost, a government marker for the grave of any deceased eligible veteran in any cemetery around the world, regardless of the veteran's date of death.
According to Caitlin Ankney, north division manager for Rome Monument, 519 Perry Way, Zelienople, and 602 Evans City Road, Suite 106, of the military markers supplied by the VA, the most popular is a flat marker in granite or bronze that is most often placed at the foot of a veteran's grave.
“What most people will do is take the vet's marker at the foot of the grave, if there is an existing headstone,” said Ankney. “But if the cemetery has rules against that, there is also a bronze niche marker that can be attached to an existing memorial.”
The VA also offers a medallion available in three sizes that can be placed on a privately purchased headstone. The medallion is inscribed with the word “Veteran” across the top and the deceased's branch of service on the bottom.
“I've had people with slanted markers and have had the veteran's marker placed on the back of their gravestone rather than at the foot of the grave,” said Ankney.
Ankney said a veteran can also receive an upright headstone in marble or granite. She said this headstone “is not as popular. You don't see them as much anymore.”
This headstone style is familiar to anyone who has seen pictures of the D-Day cemeteries in France or Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Ankney said a veteran's survivors can request a memorial from the government by sending the VA a form with a copy of the veteran's DD-214 discharge form. This is often done with the assistance of a funeral director.
“Pretty much all we do is fax them a paper. It takes anywhere from three weeks to three months for the marker to arrive,” she said.Should the family want something different, Ankney said the monument maker can add a service emblem to a traditional tombstone.“Putting a service emblem on a regular tombstone, that's definitely popular,” she said.At C.K. Steckman Memorials, 1009 Evans City Road, Renfrew, Kip Steckman, his wife, Debbie, and their daughter Kandi, not only produce military grave memorials, they also create war memorials and made the Cranberry Township 9/11 Memorial“My grandfather started the business in 1926. Kandi is the fourth generation,” Kip Steckman said of the business which also produces memorials, gravestones, pet memorials landscape rocks and personalized address rocks.“We do everything right here in house,” he said. “The rock comes from different quarries.“We get a lot from Vermont,” said Debbie Steckman, who acts as the salesman for the business.“The main thing I can tell about our pieces is they are all designed here. A lot of places buy their designs. I haven't bought a design in my life,” said Kip Steckman.“I make up my own and draw them by hand or draw them in the computer,” he said. “My classes were in the school of hard knocks. I grew up on the shop floor and worked since I was 13.”When he established his business on Evans City Road, he brought his design expertise to bear when people wanted a service emblem or military insignia added to a grave monument.Adding for example, a Marine Corps emblem to a tombstone, requires Kandi Steckman to cut out the design on a stencil made of heavy rubber.
The stencil is placed on the gravestone and then Kip Steckman proceeds to carve the image and letters into the granite using the sandblaster.“It generally takes about three days from start to finish,” he said.Designs are limited only by the customers' imaginations and budgets.Kip Steckman said, “We have customers talking to my wife saying, 'Nobody told us we can to that.'“We can do stuff like that and I have done a lot of etchings,” he said noting the elaborate drawings in stone of cars, deer and landscape scenes are subcontracted to laser designers.There aren't any rules or guidelines about what can be depicted, he said.“Most of the work is pretty much customized. As long as you make it look good, there's nothing set in stone,” Steckman said.Bronze and granite are pretty durable materials, noted Ankney.“Bronze will patina over the years. It will turn a little green,” she said. “Granite's granite, nothing's going to destroy it.”The veterans' markers have black paint added to the engraved letters to make them stand out.Ankney said while the VA markers are free, additional materials are not.While the flat markers come with screws, the concrete or granite backing the marker screws into will cost the survivors.Of veterans' gravestones and markers, Ankney said “I would say we get a pretty good mix of everything. It doesn't seem like the older generation is passing away,” referring to veterans who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.In addition to laser etching landscapes and portraits onto tombstones, Ankney said “Porcelain photos have been around. Etchings and porcelain photos are becoming more popular. It seems like a lot of people want that picture up there when they go to visit.”
She said the approach of Memorial Day also heralds an increase in business, and not just from veterans' families.Ankney said a lot of people don't like to think about death, but with Memorial Day, people begin to think about getting that headstone for their deceased relatives and having it installed.Kip Steckman said it's been his experience that “fall is the busiest season, people have been procrastinating and when the weather turns cold they think about getting mom and dad a headstone.”
