A Brother’s Keeper

A cemetery saved Andrew Alonzo's life. Before leaving for Iraq in 2003, the 13-year Marine Corps veteran already knew the cost of war. For nearly six years Alonzo worked at the Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, a 214-acre resting place for more than 75,000 veterans. His duty: setting those iconic marble headstones, mined in Georgia, mostly for a passing generation of World War II vets. After a year in one of Iraq's deadliest regions, Alonzo found himself back at his old job. Like so many vets returning home, his fight was far from over. NEWSWEEK's Jim Moscou visited the 46-year-old Colorado native last week at the cemetery. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Your friend, Staff Sgt. Mark Lawton, was killed in Iraq in 2003. What happened?
Andrew Alonzo: Ambush. It was the first time we got ambushed on both sides of the road. We were near the Iranian border. He was a comrade, a good friend. When I found out he was a casualty, it was like, "Wow, I just talked to him." I took a photo of him the day before sitting under a tree, reading a Bible. It was the last photo ever taken of him.

You had to leave the Marines during force-reduction cuts in the mid-1990s, and you later joined the Army Reserves. Did you think you'd ever be called up for war?
No, I never did. I had been on vacation when I got the call. It was a shock. I walked into the [Fort Logan cemetery] front office, and said to the foreman, "I got to go." And I was gone. Three months after the war started we went in, the 244th Engineering Battalion out of Boulder.

You left your job here the day you learned you were activated?
It was that quick. The next morning I had to report to the reserve center. We got orders to go to Tikrit, in the Sunni Triangle. We patrolled all the way to the Iranian border. That's where we lost Sgt. Lawton. [Alonzo approaches the gravesite of 28-year-old Marine 1st Lt. Matthew R. Vandergrift, who was buried with full military honors on April 28, 2008, one week after he was killed. The grave is covered in flowers. He takes a moment of silence] This is Lt. Vandergrift.

Were you involved with his internment?
Oh yeah. I make sure the headstone is set properly and the final preparation is correct. I always oversee the closing of the KIAs [graves of those killed in action]. I'm the last one to leave the gravesite. I take pride in being the last one to say farewell. That's one thing I hold dearly, being the last one to leave. It gives me closure. It's one of those things I don't let anyone touch. That's my job. And I want to make sure everything's perfect.

Do you say anything?
I always do.

As an Iraq vet, do you feel a particular responsibility to people here in the cemetery?
Always. Yeah. Especially with the KIAs. I take pride in the whole cemetery. But I have connection to these men [Iraq casualties]. We were all there.