Family upset over veteran's headstone inscription at Fort Snelling

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - There's an entire wall in Dawn Brenner's home dedicated to her late husband, Dylan. 

He had served his country for almost a decade and was deployed three times to Iraq, eventually returning home only to pass away tragically last month at the age of 31. He was buried in his dress blues at Fort Snelling National Cemetery Oct. 13, under a headstone inscribed "Persian Gulf."

It's the army's designation for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, but to Dawn it just didn't sound right.

"To me, I read Gulf War. The Gulf War was in the early 90's," she said. "He would've been six years old. It doesn't seem like that's what it should have been."

Other titles have been added for what the military calls a person's wartime service, including "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and "Operation Enduring Freedom"--titles Dawn feels would have been better.

She asked for a new headstone that simply lists "Iraq" under Dylan's name and rank--something Fort Snelling said it's happy to do, with a new headstone currently on the way. Though for Dawn it's too little too late.

"I feel like he did something very honorable for this country, and to not put his tombstone correctly is very disrespectful," she said.