OZARK COUNTY, Mo. (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH) — The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports a patio and staircase apparently built out of military gravestones at a property in southern Missouri has sparked a firestorm of criticism on social media.
Navy veteran Ed Harkreader of Mountain Home, Ark., posted photographs of the arrangement on Facebook last week. The post triggered scores of outraged comments and was shared thousands of times.
“This isn’t the way you should use military headstones,” Harkreader told the Post-Dispatch in a telephone interview Monday. “This is disrespectful of military veterans.”
Harkreader, 55, said he served in the Navy for 22 years. He said he heard about the use of the stones from a friend and drove the short distance from his home in Arkansas to the property in Ozark County, Mo. The property is near Lake Norfork just north of the Missouri-Arkansas line.
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