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03/17/2004 Archived Entry: "What Bush doesn't want you to see"
What Bush doesn't want you to see.
A description of what goes on at Dover AFB.
Each time a plane returns with human remains, aircraft in the immediate area shut off their engines. A noncommissioned officer boards the plane to inspect the aluminum transfer cases containing the remains. Each case is draped with an American flag and arranged so that it leaves the plane with the body of the person positioned feet first.One of the base's top military officials, an Air Force colonel, arrives on the tarmac with a military chaplain and an Army general officer, in case arriving casualties are soldiers. The chaplain leads a short prayer.
On the plane, an eight-member Air Force Honor Guard lifts each case and slowly marches it off as the plane's flight crew stands by in the cargo hold and salutes. If an Army soldier is being transferred, a squad from the Old Guard, part of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment, is flown from Fort Myer in Arlington, Va., to participate.
A specially designed truck, acting as a hearse, is positioned about 20 feet away from the plane's open cargo door. After the last case is loaded, the door of the hearse is closed and the remains are taken to the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs, a couple of minutes' drive away.
On the way to the mortuary, the road on the base is cleared and traffic is stopped. Drivers or passers-by who see the hearse stop and salute.
The ritual happens at all hours of the day and night. As of yesterday, nearly 600 soldiers, civilians and contractors who died in Iraq and Afghanistan had been brought through Dover.
"Sometimes there have been family members who meet the remains here, or friends of the fallen Americans who've come back," Reynolds says. "It's very professionally done. There's a whole lot of emotion."
From the moment the plane lands to the moment the remains are delivered to the mortuary would take about an hour for five bodies, Reynolds says.
That's brief compared to all the steps in preparing the remains.
Thanks to B3 reader Melic for the link.
Replies: somebody speaks up.
I read this and it breaks my heart that in that metal case is someone's son, husband, daughter or father. The responsibility of our government that puts our soldiers (and civilians) in harm's way need to know that all avenues of peaceful resolution have been broached before it puts these lives at risk. I don't think oil or personal vendetta fits that criteria.
I also wonder what value our government have put on the lives of the 50,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children who forfetted their lives in this war. A war they did not cause and did not support. No flag-draped metal cases with honor guards for these victims. The only thing they share with these American dead are grieving friends and family that ask whether the price paid was worth it.
Posted by KevinA. @ 03/17/2004 12:57 PM NY
