They are not luggage.
by Frederick
21, of San Diego; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.; died Nov. 15 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Taji, Iraq.
Father’s Complaint Prompts U.S. Military to Change How it Brings Fallen Soldiers Home
Friday, April 06, 2007
Associated Press
In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America’s fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.
That change — which took effect quietly in January and applies to members of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan, too — came after a campaign waged by a father who was aghast to learn that his son’s body was going to be unloaded like so much luggage.
John Holley said an airline executive told him that was the “most expeditious” way to get the body home.
“I said, `That’s not going to happen with my son. That’s not how my son is coming home,”‘ said Holley, an Army veteran from San Diego whose son, Spc. Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005. “If it was `expeditious’ to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?”
Kalitta Charters of Ypsilanti, Mich., won the Pentagon contract to bring the war dead home, and has returned 143 bodies since Jan. 1.
More than 3,500 Americans have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the new law was passed by Congress, the dead that arrived from overseas at the military mortuary in Dover, Del., were then typically flown to the commercial airport nearest their families.
Background:
Furor Over Soldier’s Coffin Sent Home with Passenger Baggage
Some officials skeptical of mishandling report
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle | November 30, 2006
Joseph Spector
(November 30, 2006) — A woman says she saw a soldier’s flag-draped coffin put into a cart with passengers’ baggage last month at the Greater Rochester International Airport, shocking her and other onlookers.
“It looked awful, just awful,” Cynthia Hoag, 56, of Dansville, Livingston County, said Wednesday. “Maybe we made too much out of it, but it was very disturbing to us. If that had been my son, I would have been very upset.”
Officials dispute Hoag’s story, saying it is implausible. They did not disclose the name of the fallen soldier, but he appears to be Army Sgt. 1st Class Tony Knier of Sabinsville, Pa., who was killed in Iraq on Oct. 21.
A Pennsylvania funeral director confirmed on Wednesday night that he transported Knier’s body from the Rochester airport on Oct. 27, the day Hoag was there. Monroe County officials said the coffin was being taken to Pennsylvania.
Knier’s mother was appalled when she was told Wednesday night that the incident might have involved the body of her 31-year-old son, a husband and father of three young children. Knier’s funeral was Oct. 31 near his home in Wellsboro, Pa.
Never forget what this Administration has done to our soldiers.
Comments
Thank you Mr. Bush,
For profits before people.
The current administration’s concern for our soldiers falls from their mouths like so much shit on the tongue.
I heard this yesterday while driving. I think Lew summed that one up.
Parents should not have to bury their children, it is so unnatural. But when it happens, and when that child happens to be a soldier who was killed in action, that parent should never hear the word “expeditious.”
This administration has no decency. At the end of the day, their concern only for their own expeditious needs is beyond criminal.
Time to throw them out of office.
Sending fallen soldiers home as frieght luggage…not only is that the ultimate insult but it perfectly encapsulates the soul (or lack thereof) of the Bush administration…as if we needed another example of mass criminality
What were they thinking?
When was it this administration thought about cost savings? Bush’s inauguration? Creating falsified information for the war? Photo Ops? No expense spared there. Once again, this proves how this administration considers the common man as dirt beneath their feet. The common man votes.
Another fine example of Bush et al blowing the job…such sensitivity to the families of troops that have given their lives for his lies. Thank god they and their families are finally receiving this small measure of respect.
That was the subject of one of my first posts and I hope that my older brother who was killed in Vietnam didn’t come home like fucking luggage.
A good friend of mine makes his living flying bodies out of Iraq, and flying weapons and equipment in. Sometimes, he gets the pleasure of fulfilling both these objectives on each side of a round trip.
I’ll tell you this: he is never short of work.
Oh, and my favorite story is when they were flying about 20 bodies out and the navigator said to the Marine captain (this was a couple of years ago), “I’ll bet you wish Rumsfeld was in one of those coffins.”
Response: “Hey, you can’t say that.”
My God! What an insult to every parent and child that had to bury a loved one for lies.
With the billons (of OUR tax dollars) this administration has thrown about, you’d think they’d treat these men and women with the respect they deserve. What if it were the shrub twins? how would they come come?
ITMF’sA
No, they are not luggage and this is the LEAST of what we should be doing to honor our soldiers.