万花筒 Kaleidoscope2007-10-07&10-08, 不仅仅是墓碑（在线收听）

In the course of our coverage of this nation's wars, we try everyday here to focus on the sacrifice of those who serve and their families. Nowhere is that sight more striking than when you come across the graves of those Americans who have served. And there's one place where it's their job to get that just right. Our report tonight from NBC's Mike Taibbi.

In a small Vermont village of hobby shops and ice-cream, the flags in the breeze, and no need for a multiplex. They are writing the ends of war stories on a few acres on the edge of town. This is an operation called Granite Industries in Barre which makes the gravestones for the dead of America's wars. Around 100 markers a day and most for veterans of past wars cut from the Granite Mother Road beneath the nearby hills. This is not just a job.

These men have died for us for our country and they deserve a decent stone, and, and I’m glad that we can do it. I'm proud of what I do.

Well, even though this vast quarry has provided jobs and revenue for Barre since the Civil War, it isn't Granite supplying the markers for the acts of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's marble, from another quarry 19 miles to the south under a contract to make the symbol markers for Arlington and other national cemeteries. On most days one or more offer fallen soldiers born in the 70s and even the 80s.

It's really sad. They have not a chance to live.

And that melancholy deepens for the workers on the line. When they know the story they are finishing in a sense.

We hear something, He's been all over the news.

As Robert Macallan knew the story of Private Joseph Anzack. One of the 3 10th Mountain division soldiers ambushed and kidnapped in May outside Baghdad leading to a massive search effort, Anzack found in the Euphrates river 2 weeks later. Macallan still on the army reserve himself, and in Kuwait at the start of the war, felt like Anzack's team mate working on his marker.

It's more of a sense of duty and... pride, he is, um, I think soldiers should be taking care of soldiers.

In a town built on stone, in its buildings, in its ample sculptures, there is everyday heartfelt work underway, a somber economic link to war that saddens as it sustains, as it helps the nation acklnowledge and remember. Mike Taibbi NBC News, Barre Vermont.

That's our broadcast for this Tuesday night. Thank you for being with us. I'm Brian Williams. We hope you'll join us right back here tomorrow night. Good night.