Free Republic

SAN DIEGO -- There's controversy over how the military is transporting the bodies of service members killed overseas, 10News reported. A local family said fallen soldiers and Marines deserve better and that one would think our war heroes are being transported with dignity, care and respect. It said one would think upon arrival in their hometowns they are greeted with honor. But unfortunately, the family said that is just not the case. Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag -- greeted by a color guard. But in reality, many are arriving as...

SAN DIEGO -- There's controversy over how the military is transporting the bodies of service members killed overseas, 10News reported. A local family said fallen soldiers and Marines deserve better and that one would think our war heroes are being transported with dignity, care and respect. It said one would think upon arrival in their hometowns they are greeted with honor. But unfortunately, the family said that is just not the case. Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag -- greeted by a color guard. But in reality, many are arriving as...

I just read an article about a family in California who is unhappy that the body of their son was shipped home from Dover AFB as freight on a commercial airliner. Is this standard military procedure?

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon, under pressure from open-government advocates, released hundreds of images Thursday of flag-draped coffins of American soldiers. The Pentagon had previously refused to release such images, which were taken by military photographers. Nor has it allowed the news media to photograph ceremonies of soldiers' coffins arriving in the United States, saying it is enforcing a policy installed in 1991 to respect the privacy of families of dead soldiers. The pictures were released in response to a request for all military photos of caskets containing the remains of American soldiers taken since the U.S. launched its attack on...

Gentlemen, I just wanted to share with all of you my most recent Air Force Reserve trip. As most of you know, I have decided to go back into the Air Force Reserves as a part time reservist and after 6 months of training, I have recently been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and have been fully mission qualified as an Aircraft Commander of a KC-135R strato tanker aircraft. On Friday of last week, my crew and I were tasked with a mission to provide air refueling support in order to tanker 6 F-16's over to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey....

October 16, 2004 Service Members, Families Say Pentagon Sent Too Few Troops To Iraq, Stressed National Guard and Reserves, Should Allow Photos of Coffins at Dover Even though they support George W. Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq in general, America’s military service members and their families are convinced that the Administration underestimated the number of troops it needed in Iraq and put too much of a burden on inadequately trained and equipped National Guard and reserve forces. From September 22 through October 5, Annenberg polled 655 adults who have either served on active duty between February and October...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Aug. 16, 2004) -- Amidst the chaos of combat, one small unit here quietly does a job no one else wants to do and ensures fallen troops are brought back to their families. Service members who die in the eastern part of the Al Anbar province, including the cities of Ramadi, Fallujah and Najaf, are brought to the 1st Force Service Support Group's Mortuary Affairs detachment here before making the trip back to the states. The 20-person unit is full of Marines who seem to have aged a great deal since they flew to the Middle...

Senate Keeps Casket PolicyWashington-The Senate refused Monday to change a Pentagon policy banning media coverage of America's war dead as their caskets arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.The 54-39 Senate negative vote defeated an amendment to the authorization bill for the Defense Department that would have required the Pentagon to produce a protocol in 60 days to regulate media coverage of the returning dead.

EMERSON, N.J.--The debate, or rather the topic of criticism, had been simmering even before the first of the fallen heroes in their Flag Draped Coffins began to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. In a speech on the Senate floor, Dianne Feinstein, debating the resolution to authorize the use of force in Iraq, both insulted Americans by her flat-out prediction that as the numbers of the fallen heroes rose the resolve of the American would evaporate and then pre-insulted the soon-to-come fallen heroes by referring to them in the crudest of terms as "body bags." Since the start...

"They are the images of war the Bush Administration doesn't want the American public or anyone to see. But a Web site is showing hundreds of flag-draped caskets arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Official Bush Administration and Defense Department policy forbids such photographs, saying they are disrespectful of the dead. Critics say the policy hides truth from the public, and they got the photos released under the Freedom of Information Act." So spoke Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News on April 22. The word "hundreds" is exaggerated. There have actually been about 126 American combat deaths...

ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday proudly touted its “exclusive” with the sister of Tami Silicio, the woman who was fired by a Pentagon contractor after a picture she took of flag-draped coffins inside a plane in Iraq bound for Dover, of those killed in Iraq, appeared on the front page of the Seattle Times. But the sister hardly provided any expert or relevant information. When co-host Charles Gibson prodded Toni Silicio into bashing the Pentagon, “Do you know if the Pentagon told that contractor, Maytag, to fire your sister and her husband?”, she responded with nonsense: “They put pressure...

John Weidner of Random Jottings displays this moving image this morning: A caisson carries the casket of Lance Cpl. Torrey Stoffel-Gray in a procession through Patoka, Ill., on Monday. The 19-year-old Marine was killed April 11 by hostile fire in Iraq's Anbar province. He was stationed at Twentynine Palms, Calif Weidner asks:So why don't we see more things like this? And what's the big deal about Dover? He answers: Dover AFB is where large shipments of coffins with our war dead arrive. They are then forwarded to various localities. The press wants to show coffins en masse because they think...

<p>April 24, 2004 -- The release of flag-draped coffin photos supposedly of American soldiers killed in Iraq turned into an uproar yesterday when it was revealed the pictures include images of the remains of Columbia space-shuttle astronauts and casualties from Afghanistan.</p>

NASAWatch Editor's note: "CNN Headline news is flashing several pictures of NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory standing on the tarmac receiving the bodies of the Columbia crew at Dover Air Force Base in February 2003 and claiming that the photos are of caskets containing war dead arriving home from Iraq in 2004."

Today I Miss HimDate: Apr 22, 2004 - 09:34 AM U.S.M.C. - Taking Chance LtCol Strobl Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him. Over a year ago, I volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq should the need arise. The military provides a uniformed escort for all casualties to ensure they are delivered safely to the next of kin and are treated with dignity and respect along...

Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, a leader of the so-called anti-war movement, fled the scene when Doctor Raoul confronted her on her pro-communist background today at an anti-war rally outside Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.The rally, attended by about three hundred people, was being held to highlight the Pentagon's long-standing policy of not allowing media coverage of the return of fallen American servicemen and women.Doctor Raoul, sans sign or costume, stood across a six lane highway from the rally and addressed them using a portable PA system. He asked the group, which included Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and some...

I heard today on the Sean Hannity show that the De-Rats are upset about the showing of a Flag draped coffin in one of his TV ads. Now correct me if I am wrong but in a recent speech, Hillary stated that it was wrong for GWB to not allow the filming of the same that are coming back from the War on Terror! I couldn't find the thread here on FR but I read it here last week.

-----Original Message----- From: OCAR Public Service Announcement Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 12:22 To: Subject: Report from Dover Importance: High Subject: Report from Dover Sir: Per the CG's request, here's that report about the work at Dover. Recommend the SGS send it out across the land. There are no reporters on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base. The public is not allowed to witness the military tradition of "receiving the remains". Instead, there are soldiers, roused at dark hours to stand in the confines of what seems like a secret as the dead are brought home. I am one...

CAMP WOLVERINE, Kuwait - The bodies come in most every day. The American soldiers here strip them of their belongings and lay them in metal coffins packed with ice. "Most people are scared of us," said Spc. Steve Rawlings, who works in the white tent serving as the mortuary for U.S. soldiers killed in neighboring Iraq (news - web sites). "Most people don't want to talk about death." The Theater Mortuary Evacuation Point occupies a forlorn cluster of tents at the back corner of this sand-covered base in Kuwait, hidden behind stacks of shipping containers. Few people venture here, other...

U.S. Mortuary Sees No Let-Up from Iraq War Dead By David Morgan DOVER, Del. (Reuters) - Nearly a month after Saddam Hussein's capture, American war dead from Iraq continue to arrive with somber regularity at the wind-swept Air Force base in Delaware that is home to the world's largest mortuary. The remains of the fallen, wrapped in body bags and encased in ice-laden metal transfer cases, descend from the sky aboard gray military planes or white civilian Boeing 747s. They are met at the airstrip by an honor guard, chaplain and small motorcade of blue vans. The chaplain prays while...