Posted on 10/13/2013 4:32:42 AM PDT by IbJensen
My heart is just sick over this.
The Pentagon just admitted that those heart-rending “arrival ceremonies” at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, wherein an honor guard carries off a cargo plane the flag-draped coffins supposedly containing the remains of soldiers killed in battle ARE ALL STAGED.
The coffins are empty. Even the cargo planes are fake — they don’t fly.
~Eowyn
(Just phony theater: An honor detail comprised of joint military members prepares to escort the remains of fallen servicemembers who died during World War II and the Vietnam War during an arrival ceremony April 26, 2013, hosted by the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. (Photo by Sean Furey/U.S. Navy))
The Department of Defense unit charged with recovering servicemembers’ remains abroad has been holding phony “arrival ceremonies” for seven years, with an honor guard carrying flag-draped coffins off of a cargo plane as though they held the remains returning that day from old battlefields.
The Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday that no honored dead were in fact arriving, and that the planes used in the ceremonies often couldn’t even fly, and were towed into position. The story was first reported on nbcnews.com.
The ceremonies at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii are held up as a sign of the nation’s commitment to its fallen warriors. They have been attended by veterans and families of MIAs, led to believe that they were witnessing the return of Americans killed in World War II, Vietnam and Korea.
In a statement sent to NBC News, the Pentagon wrote:
“Part of the ceremony involves symbolically transferring the recovered remains from an aircraft to a vehicle for follow-on transportation to the lab. Many times, static aircraft are used for the ceremonies, as operational requirements dictate flight schedules and aircraft availability. This transfer symbolizes the arrival of our fallen servicemembers.
“It is important to note that recovered remains ceremoniously transferred from the aircraft to the [bus] have been in the lab undergoing forensic analysis to determine identity. When remains first arrive in Hawaii, JPAC cannot confirm if the remains are those of an American servicemember.”
NBC writes that the ceremonies have been known among some of the military and civilian staff at the base as The Big Lie.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, has come under intense scrutiny in recent months after two scathing reports were released this summer.
In July, The Associated Press ran a story exposing a 2012 internal JPAC report that found the agency to be “acutely dysfunctional” with some missions that amounted to little more than paid vacations for staffers.
A second investigation released weeks later by the Government Accountability Office found that Pentagon efforts to account for fallen troops missing overseas were inefficient and in need of overhaul, according to congressional sources.
In 2010, lawmakers mandated JPAC to reach an annual goal of recovering at least 200 fallen troops from overseas battlefields by 2015, but it had failed to build the capacity to do so, the GAO found. Currently the Hawaii-based command averages less than 70 individuals per year.
Much of the inefficiency found by the GAO researchers comes down to a turf war between JPAC and the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, which shares some of the same responsibilities, Congressional sources said.
The show
According to the NBC report, here’s what the audience was shown:
A C-17 military transport aircraft was parked, its ramp down, outside a hangar at the base. After generals and dignitaries were introduced, a military chaplain said a prayer, the audience sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and “Taps” was played. Then an honor guard carried flag-draped transfer cases, which look like coffins, down the ramp and placed them in the back of blue buses, which were driven away.
The emcee thanked the audience for “welcoming them home.” The script continued, “After removal from the aircraft, the remains will be taken to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command’s Central Identification Laboratory. There, JPAC scientists will begin the identification process.”
Citing eyewitnesses and photographs taken behind the scenes, NBC wrote that what actually happened is very different:
Before 6 a.m., the honor guard assembled behind the JPAC headquarters on the base. They loaded transfer cases onto the buses and drove to the hangar.
The honor guard loaded the transfer cases into the pre-positioned C-17, then rehearsed for the ceremony. They then returned to the plane, and waited.
The public was allowed in for the 9 a.m. ceremony: invited politicians, media, families of the missing and veterans. Employees from JPAC were bused over to fill out the crowd.
Then the show began, with tears and salutes as the remains were marched to the buses, then driven off to the lab to “begin the identification process.”
Jesse Baker, an 81-year-old Air Force veteran of World War II and Korea living in Honolulu, told NBC News that he has been to more than 50 of these ceremonies. He said he’s always been under the impression that the plane had just arrived carrying recovered remains.
Baker tried to make sense of why the DOD would work so hard to trick him and other veterans. “That’s disturbing. I don’t know when they stopped being honest and switched over to this Mickey Mouse, but whoever did it, I hope they find him a new job somewhere.”
John Molloy, Chairman of the National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition, whom I am honored to call my friend, wrote this email:
Compatriots,
Phony ceremonies for 7 years.
That means that both Obama and Bush administrations are complicit.
The Secretaries of Defense Panetta and Gates are complicit. And DASD’s [Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense] Newberry, Ray and General Tom are too.
So they have all followed in the footsteps of liars Kissinger, GHW Bush, Powell, Cheney, Carter, Clinton, Armitage, et al.
Someone needs to break out the rope. It’s time.
John John Molloy Chairman National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition
Is it time for hangings soon?
I can hardly think of a more gut churning story.
The Pentagon does not even care.
It continues to lose all respect as it SCREWS Americans
and ARMS al Qaeda for the undocumented
Moslem Tyrant-by-fraud with weapons.
btt
7 years?
This ain’t Obamas doing. I am sure he had no idea.
Seems to me our military has a lack of credibility.
The Pentagon is filled with slimy civilians who order their office underlings to do the bidding of the evil Obama regime!
There are NO jobs that a uniformed military personnel couldn’t perform! Proper central government in their direction of the military needs to clean out the infested Pentagon. Political officers need to be riffed while civilians fired and forced to earn a living.
Young Americans are destined to continue dying in order to justify the civilian manipulation of military decisions and the damned Congress is complicit in this evil cesspool.
Those empty boxes are as close to being heroes as the usurper in our White House is to being an American or a president. From Obama’s perspective, why not pretend about honoring our heroes too?
Slight of hand, bag of tricks, what you see is not what you get, illusions, smoke and mirrors...in short, the Obama Presidency.
it could be like fast and furious where obama media try to pass it off as a policy that came from bush, but in fact started during obama admin
That's not true.
“There are NO jobs that a uniformed military personnel couldn’t perform!”
Most if not all military jobs, from cooking and cleaning to security and office work, were at one time performed by military personnel. Then, Congress started parceling them out to favored constituents who, presumably, returned the favor with political contributions and support.
This probably lets the military look smaller on paper than it really is. And, it spreads the wealth around. (Where have we heard that?)
You are not alone.
We “youngens” (I am 55) were raised on your values too. we are the WWII living in the shadow generation.
All is not lost and the country is not a “pile of manure”.
Our leadership, (if you can call it that) is the pile of manure but who put these armatures in power, well, the majority need to follow an alternative path.
I suggest the US reinstate the draft as a compulsory service for all men and women, (I am a Vet). You see, young people need to be disciplined in their freedoms for 2 years minimum in order to APPRECIATE this Republic.
Mind you, it will be difficult to reinstate but it will restore civic responsibility, burdern-sharing and self-discipline.
Yes it is.
You may be on active duty today, but I too served in the military during wartime. I have watched over the decades as key jobs were given to civilians. As a civilian I have, through my civilian career, had to visit Air Force offices where a civilian is running the show and doling out assignments to ‘captains’ and NCOs.
I support gleaning out the civilians entrenched in the military apparatus and making certain that positions are filled by those in uniform.
I don’t believe you have served in any administrative capacity, nor have you been assigned at any time to that cobwebbed Pentagon, so you wouldn’t actually know.
I, too, support compulsory MILITARY service for ALL young men. If that were re-enacted we just might instill some discipline into these oafs that loaf around street corners selling drugs to babies. Instead of filling up the prisons with misfits we might actually be making men out of those who would otherwise end up worthless.
A lot would have to be accomplished first. The officers and NCOs would have to be re-instilled with the authority over all their charges. The recruits would have to know that stepping out of line is a direct route to the stockade. Further, no more homosexuals admitted and no more females in combat situations or onboard ships. This toxic combination is anathema to a sound military.
No more senseless wars in which we have no business being engaged. America doesn’t even protect CONUS!
As a veteran myself, who saw how the military was supposed to work decades ago, I am aghast at what I see today. I know this may appear picayune to many, but there is a definite lack of any decorum when I see troops traveling in fatigues. Many never wear a class A uniform.
Character Guidance and Troop Information needs to be re-established as it’s as important as basic infantry training to a soldier, or boot camp to a sailor.
So it’s all theater !
I feel used and manipulated——what else is new?
.
You know though that the Israeli Defense Forces have successfully integrated females almost right up to the front line and many of them are fine officers, NCOs and excellent trainers to men soldiers.
Israelis know how to get the job done with females assisting.
Couldn't the US do the same? I mean couldn't females serve with men as they do now or do you see this as destructive?
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