What is Arlington's Section 60?: NPR

A man lays flowers in front of the headstones in Section 60, which mark the final resting place of soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on May 27.

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A solemn, 35-acre section of Arlington National Cemetery, largely reserved for deceased U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has suddenly become the center of controversy after a cemetery employee tried to prevent former President Trump's campaign from holding a photo op there.

As NPR first reportedOn Monday, a cemetery employee and Trump campaign representatives got into an altercation over photos taken in an area in the eastern half of the cemetery known as Section 60. A source familiar with the incident told NPR that Arlington officials made it clear that only cemetery employees were authorized to take photos or film in that area.

Allison Jaslow, an Iraq War veteran and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), tells NPR that she visits Section 60 regularly, which she says is “a humbling reminder of how lucky some of us were to make it home.”

Trump’s appearance in Arlington came on the third anniversary of a deadly attack in Afghanistan in which 13 American soldiers killed in August 2021 during a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. A photo of the former president shows him smiling and giving a “thumbs up” sign next to the gravestone of Marine Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, along with members of the fallen soldier's family. Utah Governor Spencer Cox is also seen in the photo.

But there are two other headstones visible – one of them belongs to a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who committed suicide. Someone close to that soldier's family confirmed to NPR that they did not give permission to show the headstone in the photos. NPR has not received a response from the Trump campaign on whether it sought permission from the Green Beret's family.

Speaking of Monday's incident: The IAVA Jaslow says, “I find it hard to imagine that someone who wants to be an elected official would think of doing something like that.”

Trump also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Former President Donald Trump lays a wreath next to Marine Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart (retired) and Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews (retired) of the U.S. Marine Corps, who were injured in the Abbey Gate bombing, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery August 26 in Arlington, Virginia.

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A visitor information sheet with “rules of conduct” for Arlington National Cemetery clearly prohibits “political campaigning or election-related activities in the cemeteries.” In a statement to NPR on Wednesday about the incident, the cemetery emphasized: “Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities in Army National Cemetery military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others who are there for the purposes of or in direct support of the campaign of a partisan political candidate.”

The statement confirmed that an incident had occurred and “a report was filed,” but did not name the Arlington officer involved.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, dismissed the notion of a physical altercation, saying, “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.” To date, the Trump campaign has not produced any such video. Cheung described the Arlington employee who sought to deny the Trump campaign access to Section 60 as someone who suffers from a mental disorder.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment. America's Gold Star Families, an organization whose stated mission is to “provide honor, hope and healing to those who mourn a military loss while serving on active duty in the United States Armed Forces,” also declined to comment, saying only that NPR's coverage “detracts from honoring our fallen heroes and contributes to further division among the American people.”

Arlington National Cemetery was established on May 13, 1864, during the raging American Civil War. It was carved out of the Arlington Estate, land the U.S. government confiscated from the family of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The cemetery contains deceased members of all branches of the U.S. military, but is administered by the U.S. Department of the Army.

Section 60 was inaugurated in 2018 and includes approximately 900 soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Robert Poole, author of “Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery, Where the War Comes Home,” during a talk on C-SPAN about his book In 2015, he said of Section 60 at the cemetery that “the emotions are closer to the surface.”

“From a distance, it looks like any other part of Arlington Cemetery,” Poole said. “But when you zoom in a little closer and look at the names on the graves, talk to some of the people who go there, and [look at] Some of the things that people bring there to leave for their friends, comrades and loved ones show that it is quite different.”

The US withdrawal was initiated as part of a Peace agreement of February 2020 signed with the Taliban during the Trump administration. While the Biden administration missed the May 1, 2021 deadline set in the original agreement, it promised to comply with the terms of the withdrawal agreement before September 11 of that year.