Dennis, You may remember, when we were doing research on headstones, I had someone contact me about a incorrect inscription on a headstone. We contacted the VA, they said the marker had to be destroyed and re-made, which made absolutely no sense to me. I do not know what ever happened as it was not in my county, I think we found out the guy that ordered it, just found graves and ordered markers without any research at all. (this was back several years ago)
I did have one marker that was inscribed wrong, so they took it up, sent it off to a monument company, and had the correct information inscribed on the reverse side, took it back to the cemetery and reset it. This stone did not have the wrong info ground off.
Moral to this whole story is: Sometimes the Gov. makes silly judgments that end up being costly to the public. More often than not it is better to just do what needs to be done, one of my favorite things is "it is easier to get forgiveness than permission"