Opinion: Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers comes home to Dover, first public view of U.S. war casket in 18 years
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
The casket of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers came home to Dover Air Base in Delaware this weekend.
Killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on Saturday, Myers’ body was flown home on Sunday and carried off the plate by an honor guard, his casket draped in an American flag and cameras clicking.
It was the first news coverage of an American casket returning from a war zone in 18 years, ever since the first President Bush banned media from covering the arrival of caskets coming home from the Persian Gulf War. The policy was kept in place by presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Myers, a 30-year-old Air Force veteran from Hopewell, Va., was a member of the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron with the Royal Air Force in Lakenheath, England. He was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery last year for his service in Iraq.
Anti-war activists have long assailed the no-news-cameras policy, charging that the rule was a veiled attempt to hide from public view the human cost of war. For their part, administrations have portrayed the policy as a humanitarian gesture to shield grieving families.
During the campaign, President Obama was asked about the ban and promised to review it if elected. Vice President Joe Biden has long advocated lifting the ban. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the only Bush holdover in the Obama Cabinet, has said that the restriction made him uncomfortable. So in short order, the new administration decided to allow news coverage of arriving caskets if the family of the deceased givesits approval.
As the Navy Times put it, Myer’s return ‘marked an early watershed in the administration of President Barack Obama, a nod in favor of transparency and away from secrecy favored by prior administrations.’
Over the years, there have been several notable exceptions to the policy. In 1996, news coverage was allowed when Clinton attended the arrival of the remains of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 32 others killed in a plane crash in Croatia. In 2000, the Pentagon distributed photographs of the arrival of remains of those killed in the bombing of the USS Cole and in 2001, the Air Force distributed a photograph of the remains of a victim of the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon.
Almost all of the 4,266 casualties in Iraq and the 668 casualties in Afghanistan through the end of March have come through Dover’s mortuary, military officials said earlier this year. Now, every soldier returning in a U.S.-flag-draped coffin will be viewed by the public, with family permission. Already, commentators are debating the potential impact on public support for war.
As the Ventura County Star put it, ‘The prospect of press access to military caskets has long disturbed the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Both organizations fear that what should be an intimate, solemn moment might be trivialized as yet another photo op or, worse still, hijacked by any number of opportunistic propagandists for political purposes.’
-- Johanna Neuman
Click here to register for automatic Tweets on each new Ticket item.
Photo Credit: Evan Vucci