Conditions at a cemetery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recently sparked outrage among veterans, service members and civilians alike following a series of posts across Reddit over the weekend that showed a collapsed burial vault and an exposed casket at the grave marker of a U.S. Army soldier who died during the Korean War.
Pfc. Samuel Pierre Jr. was 23 when he died in Korea in July 1952. Military casualty records list his death as nonhostile. His grave marker now stands beside a collapsed brick tomb at Sweet Olive Cemetery, a historically Black burial ground established in 1898.
Above-ground burial vaults are common in parts of Louisiana, where high water tables and frequent flooding can make underground burials difficult. The vaults help prevent floodwaters from disturbing buried remains…