The Return of Fallen Soldiers
"The body of U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Phillip A. Myers, of Hopewell, Virginia is transferred upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware late on April 5, 2009."
I hate to begin the week on a somber note, but I think this is too important not to mention. For the first time in 18 years, the media was allowed to capture the “dignified transfer” of a solider killed in combat as his or her remains are returned the family. According to the Washington Post:
Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Myers, 30, of Hopewell, Va., who was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday in the explosion of a makeshift bomb, became the first service member welcomed home publicly in 18 years. Myers, who was attached to the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron based in England, was awarded a Bronze Star last year for his service in Iraq, according to the Air Force.
Myers’s wife and other relatives attended the 17-minute ceremony, which began shortly after 11 last night at the Air Force base. Except for the command “Present Arms,” it was conducted in silence.
“It doesn’t matter what the conditions are like — cold, wet, sunny,” said Sgt. James Rhett of the Army’s Old Guard. “They’re a fallen soldier, and they deserve the highest respect and honor we can give.”
The images are simply incredible. Alternately beautiful in its pageantry and unbearably heartbreaking, I would argue it is the duty of every American to view these photographs and spend a few moments reflecting on the ideas of duty, honor and service to one’s country.
Living in the Northeast, I find I am largely insulated from the those serving in the Armed Forces and thus have very little sense of the sacrafice these men and woman and their families have made. This really brought it home, if only for a brief moment.
View the Washington Post album here.
I’ll admit, I’m torn on this. If the family’s ok with it, cool. No argument from me.
But I can’t imagine that every family wants to have pictures of their dead loved one’s casket floating around in the media – it seems like a severe violation of the family’s privacy (the family not having signed on the dotted line to serve).
Then again, it’s a military service and the deceased did sign his life to the service. The argument could be made that we’re honoring his/her choice.
I keep going back and forth in my head on this one.
It’s good to know that at least we’re not pretending that it’s not happening any more. The fallen all deserve our respect as a nation.
Lily, media participation at these events is only possible with the consent of the family. Hopefully that eases some of your hesitation…
Kai and AJ….. never having been there, please don’t presume you have all the answers. Try reviewing this link and place yourself in the position this mother was in. The media has largely and thoroughly earned, through hard work and persistence, the utter disrespect of most military families.
If you can find a military family you might ask (yeah, northeast isolation and all that….), do that.
http://knottiesniche.blogspot.com/2009/03/dover-ban.html
I certainly don’t presume to know all the answers (although I’m a little unclear as to what would be offensive or controversial about the concepts that the fallen deserve our respect or that we shouldn’t pretend this doesn’t happen). As it happens, I’m not as isolated from the military as all that (and Lily less so than I) — I know a number of active duty folks in various branches of the service and am quite close to one. Admittedly, however, none of them are enlisted or currently stationed in Afghanistan or Iraq, so I’m sure the perspective I get from them is a little different from the feelings of the families of people like Staff Sgt. Myers.
Absolutely, no one should be pushed to allow photography of something like this at a vulnerable moment, and if the family isn’t comfortable with it, the press should leave well enough alone. I do, however, think that there’s an extent to which seeing those images brings home the war in ways that can be helpful to our dialogue about what we’re asking the military to do abroad. If, and I stress, IF the family is genuinely okay with the concept (and I have to think those families do exist even if they’re in the minority), letting the public share those moments in some small way could ultimately be helpful to the folks who continue to serve abroad at the risk of their own lives.
Eh, this is really the wrong forum to be having this debate. But, having made the point AJ did, with the aura of respect and civility she attributed to the topic, and then filing it under the risible category of “Nailing Pailin”, well……. just couldn’t let this pass without at least a small elbow to the ribs.
A few factoids. The military mortuary at Dover AFB is the single largest military mortuary in existence. It is built to receive military casualties in their raw, unaltered state and to identify and prepare those remains for transport and final burial at locations specified by the next of kin.
In 1991, Pres George H.W. Bush (the elder) promulgated the media ban at Dover, at the very end of both his administration and the first Gulf War. It was a direct response to the media hysteria which engulfed Dover at the time. Notably, while the media ban certainly and directly restricted media access to Dover (an important and critically strategic military installation apart from the fact that a mortuary happens to be located there), the policy was (and continued to be) completely silent on media coverage and funeral protests of final burial ceremonies and rights.
That bit of oversight had to be left to 37 of the 50 states that passed funeral protest laws.
Naturally enough, the usual suspects (with their own “Nailing Pailin” agendas?) lined right up to assert their rights to disrupt these deeply personal, emotional events.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_us/funeral_protests_lawsuit
The result?? Fully 64% of military families are dead set opposed to changing the policy.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/families-debate-policy-on-soldiers-coffins/
BTW… did I mention that through two full terms of the Clinton administration, this policy remained intact? Is this another change we can all believe in?
As I say…. wrong place, wrong forum. You’ve got an interesting blog. You might consider steering clear of incendiary topics which will in all probability never touch you personally. Too many people have been so touched — and burned.
oh, for crying out loud, i just typed a long and thoughtful response which my computer just ate. the joys of technology!
*sigh*
i will try and regroup with my thoughts and post later, but i think kai hit on my of what i was going to say in any case.
in the meantime, arby, let me assure you that kai and i don’t presume to have all the answers and never have. i’m disappointed if something on his blog gave you that impression. sure, i post my opinions on topics that interest me, but welcome active discussion/dissension/alternate so long as it’s respectful.
arby, i see your point about the post tag. in all honesty we file everything related to politics under that tag (yes, clearly this is a blog with a liberal bent), though, so it was not meant as either a jab at republicans or praise for democrats. rather, it was just a natural reflex on my part when posting a new topic. i think you and i both agree that this issue transcends politics, however, so i should have been more cognizant of the fact that filing it under the heading i did could be misconstrued. fair enough.
as for your point about this policy continuing during the clinton administration, i was well aware of that fact. i may have a liberal bent, but there’s lots of stuff that bonehead did that i do not agree with. i suspect that will be the case with our new president as well, so stay tuned on that front. i dish it out to both sides of the spectrum.
as for this being the wrong forum, i have to disagree. kai, lily and myself have made a decision to post about topics that interest us, whatever they may be, and open those topics to discussion. for me, this blog is not solely about discussing beauty/fashion. kai, lily are not interested in limiting ourselves exclusively to those topics. that said, you’re more than welcome to skip topics that you will not enjoy/find distasteful or read and offer an alternative viewpoint as a means of advancing the conversation. your choice.
I am glad to find a website that is not just fluff and beauty tips. Thanks, L.G.