Arlington Moment

Sheryl M. McIlvaine touches the headstone of her husband James McIlvaine during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery on October 19, 2009. James McIlvaine was killed in Iraq on April 30, 2009.

I made this photograph while waiting for another burial to begin during an assignment at Arlington National Cemetery. A group of press photographers, including myself, were all standing in a cordoned off area about one hundred feet from the grave site. I'm sure we all made this picture with varying degrees of composition.

This image represents another way in which the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has come home for me in the past couple of weeks. It was very sad to watch.