Army veteran William Perry Wilcox’s family worked to get him buried among other veterans at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery, but his grave ended up misspelled not once, but twice.
Wilcox died of cancer in February at age 55. His burial took place in March. In April, the headstone mistakenly omitted Wilcox’s middle name and misspelled the “United” in United States Army as “Uinted.” The family ordered a new headstone, but the misspelled “Uinted” remained.
Wilcox’s son Vince Wilcox, an Air Force veteran, expressed to the Killeen Daily Herald his belief that the misspellings resulted from “laziness.”
Spelling anything wrong on a veteran’s grave — especially the country they served — is a significant dishonor. Because of the errors, the cemetery has enacted a new policy of reviewing each headstone when it arrives at the cemetery, according to Jim Suydam, a spokesman for the Texas General Land Office.
Emily Leayman is an intern at the Washington Examiner
