Errors in Stafford Armed Services Memorial still not fixed even with second update

STAFFORD, Va. - A Virginia memorial honoring fallen soldiers is getting a much-needed makeover, but the repairs still haven't fixed the issue.

The Stafford Armed Services Memorial was dedicated in mid-July and paid for with county taxpayer dollars, but a section of the memorial has several mistakes and misspellings. But even with the updates, not all of the mistakes were properly fixed.

County leaders say the information came from an Eagle Scout project, but their information was not fact-checked. They also say they never meant to dishonor the fallen war heroes which the memorial honors.

County leaders were made aware of the issues and Wednesday are fixing the mistakes, but they have not been fully corrected with the second visit either.

"The names that we put on these bricks are going to be here for a long time. Generations are going to look at these bricks and say 'This is something that happened,' and if it's not right, we actually are not honoring the memory of our veterans," says Stafford County resident Jason Pelt.

On Wednesday, workers tore out the majority of the bricks and replaced them with new ones, hoping to correct those mistakes.

For Pelt, this was the county's opportunity to fix the errors.

"Unfortunately, not all of the bricks are correct. There are still some errors left, and they have to do with a death classification," says Pelt.

On one brick, Private First Class Wade Heflin was not only labeled the wrong rank when the brick was first installed, but it still lists him as killed in action. It turns out, according to his death certificate, he died of disease and was not killed in action.

"The information is wrong. The county knows its wrong, and the county specifically is going to not correct it," says Pelt.

At the end of the day, he believes this memorial is about paying respect to the men and women who served.

But how can you do that, he says, when you're disrespecting their history, and who they were in the armed forces.

"This is a piece of history. We're creating a historical document, and that's why it's so important to make sure it is right," he says.

The county tells FOX 5 they voted to have the "Killed in Action" title to remain the same. They didn't think it was necessary to change it, or that it was disrespectful to the fallen.

In this case, Pelt asks, why they would fix the bricks at all if they're not going to fix everything. The next step, he said, is to reach out to county commissioners and local military groups to raise awareness.