Update: Due to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Memory Hole, the Air Force has released 288 photographs showing soldiers' remains arriving home (plus 73 of the Columbia astronauts). These are the images that the Pentagon prevented the public from seeing. See them here

From "Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins" by Dana Milbank (Washington Post, 21 Oct 2003):

Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.

To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases.

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops," the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the military-wide policy actually dates from about November 2000 -- the last days of the Clinton administration -- but it apparently went unheeded and unenforced, as images of caskets returning from the Afghanistan war appeared on television broadcasts and in newspapers until early this year [2003]. Though Dover Air Force Base, which has the military's largest mortuary, has had restrictions for 12 years, others "may not have been familiar with the policy," the spokeswoman said. This year, "we've really tried to enforce it."

Lately, several photos which evade this ban have surfaced. (If anyone has others, please send them.)

front page | index + search
about | contact | blog | donate