Senate panel OKs bill on honoring war dead

RICHMOND

After four years of debate, it appears that an impasse over how to honor Virginia's war dead may finally be near a resolution.

Sen. John Miller's bill, SB194, provides that all active-duty Virginia military personnel who die in a combat zone under honorable conditions, or are declared missing in action, will be honored in the same way at the Virginia War Memorial, a glass-and-marble monument overlooking the James River in Richmond.

Approved in a near-unanimous vote Monday by a Senate committee, the measure provides that all those veterans' names be inscribed on the memorial's Shrine of Memory, where some 12,000 Virginia veterans have been so honored since the memorial was authorized in 1950.

Selection criteria for the memorial have been in limbo since 2009, when the General Assembly directed the memorial's governing board to develop consistent standards.

In recent years, the board has taken the position that only those Virginians killed in hostile action should be listed on the memorial. Service members killed in accidents and other noncombat circumstances are excluded.

That standard is stricter than those applied in the past. At least 1,900 veterans - roughly one in six - of those now listed on the wall died in training, plane crashes and other incidents outside of combat.

Miller, D-Newport News, has carried legislation similar to this year's measure since 2010. But it always ran aground in the House of Delegates, which insisted on a more restrictive two-tier standard. Under that plan, the Shrine of Memory would be limited to those who die as a result of hostile action. Those who die of other causes would be honored on a new, separate wall.

Presenting his bill Monday, Miller referred to the House plan as "an A wall and a B wall," suggesting that it treated veterans who die of nonhostile causes as second-class citizens.

Under those criteria, Miller said, Lance Cpl. Darrell Schumann, one of 31 Marines killed when a military transport helicopter crashed in the Iraq desert in 2005, would be listed on the "B wall."

"That simply isn't right," Miller said. "We ought to be as inclusive as possible."

He said his bill uses the same criteria as those used for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Schumann's father, Rick Schumann, a constituent of Miller's, told the panel his son is one of 42 Virginians who have died of nonhostile causes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Do not let these faces be relegated to a wall inside a room," he said. "Let them be remembered for their sacrifice they gave willingly."

Miller said after the vote that two factors make him optimistic that, this year, the House will pass his bill.

For one, his inclusive approach has won the support of Gov. Bob McDonnell.

For another, former Del. Bill Janis of Henrico County, who was the chief proponent of the rival two-tier proposal, is no longer in the House and now works for the McDonnell administration.

Bill Sizemore, 804-697-1560, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com