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04-06-2009, 08:16 AM #1
A Coffin, a Flag, a Photograph
April 5, 2009, 11:58 pm
A Coffin, a Flag, a Photograph
Brendan Smialowski
The remains of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers arrived at Dover Air Force Base on Sunday in the first such ceremony open to the news media in 18 years.
Airman Perry Aston/United States Air Force
Sergeant Myers, right, was awarded a Bronze Star on March 19.For the first time in 18 years, the Pentagon granted the news media access on Sunday night to cover the arrival of a coffin to Dover Air Force Base from overseas.
The coffin, draped in a flag and bearing the body of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Va, was unloaded from a government aircraft by the military honor guard. Sergeant Myers, 30, was killed by an improvised explosive device near Helmand Province in Afghanistan on April 4, according to the Defense Department.
A ban on news coverage of returning war dead, which had been in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, was lifted by the Obama administration following a review of the policy by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
In the hours leading up to the transfer of Sergeant Myers’s corpse, Air Force officials received the consent of his family members — per the new policy — to grant members of the news media permission to be on hand.
News coverage was allowed under a new policy by the Obama administration; the family gave permission.
Dover Air Force base, in Delaware, houses the largest military mortuary in the country and is the Pentagon’s point of entry for service men and women killed abroad.
Sergeant Myers, a member of the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron, was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery on March 19 during an Airmen’s Call at the Royal Air Force station in Lakenheath, England — a base from which the U.S. Air Force operates — according to the Pentagon. On Sunday night, his body arrived on a flight from the Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, where it had been flown from Afghanistan.
The ban has been the subject of debate for years. Supporters cite the privacy of family members and say that, in its absence, casualties could become politicized; critics point to the First Amendment and have accused the government of trying to keep the public in the dark about the human toll of war.
An earlier version of this post misspelled the given name of the staff sergeant whose body was transferred to Dover Air Force Base on Sunday night. It is Phillip, not Philip.
These pictures show the price our vets pay ...
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0 ... hotograph/Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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04-06-2009, 09:18 AM #2
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Obama and his comrades could care less about our military.
This is not respectful to our Soldiers, the family was probably so grief-stricken that they allowed the display.
We need to know how many of our soldiers are being killed in this political and business war. However, I don't think it is kind or wise to display the bodies of our slain soldiers. This action works to help our opposition, not our soldiers, but then with Obama that seems to be the point.Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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04-06-2009, 09:42 AM #3
Laura Loomer - Woke up this morning to a @nytimes article...
03-27-2024, 11:36 PM in General Discussion