Posted on 04/29/2005 8:49:41 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
Not sure if the fallen men are still brought out through Kuwait, but we used to see the coffins arrive. The honor guard would wait at plane side and remove the coffin respectfully while bagpipers played. Not sure why anyone wants or needs a photo of that. Let these men be taken care of by their comrades and keep the media out of it.
You bring up a good idea. It is a public cemetary, my beloved Father is buried there and frankly I would not like to see the cemetary turned into a circus for the media to get the money shot.
I have never gone to see the resting of JFK, because frankly it is a place I feel is for family and it would not be right for me.
Excellent comment, thanks.
Photos taken by the military photographers are by definition public property, subject to the FOIA.
Then your beef is rightfully with the media and others who will misuse the photos. That still doesn't absolve the government of its obligation under the FOIA.
I'm unbelievably for open government, and oppose Bush's penchant for secrecy and censorship.
Exactly which war did the military "always" allow these photos? I was in Viet Nam, but had never heard that pictures were allowed. All 50+000? I think not.
The ban began with Bush. Here's a 1998 photo of the arrival of Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds, killed in the Nairobi embassy bombing.
I believe that is audio film which represented the pomp and circumstance of the occasion. You are saying that in a war, combat troops were always photographed when being loaded and unloaded. I'm here to say you are full of shiite. Troll.
Howard Dean's brother was not a soldier if I recall correctly.
Not always. The majority aren't. Bush wants to keep us from seeing the minority who are. All presidents have been afraid of what images of coffins will do to popular support for their wars, and Bush is no exception. He tried to make sure no one would see it. I think the war stands on its own as just, the coffins just reminding us of the high cost of freedom and security.
Troll.
That was quite unneccessary. Anyone who disagrees with you or the President is a troll?
Charles Dean graduated from North Carolina in 1972 and went to work on the anti-war campaign of Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. After McGovern lost in a landslide to President Nixon, Charles Dean decided to travel around the world. He left New York for Seattle by car with a friend in the spring of 1973 and then traveled by freighter from Seattle to Japan. He later went on to Australia, where he lived on a ranch for nine months.
He and Sharman took off for Southeast Asia and were arrested by the communist Pathet Lao on Sept. 4, 1974, during a trip down the Mekong River in Laos. They apparently were suspected of being spies, although the U.S. and Australian governments said they were merely tourists and strongly protested their detention.
The two men were held in a small, remote prison camp for three months before they were believed to have been executed on Dec. 14 while driving toward Vietnam with their captors.
Thanks for the info. Now, I just got some disturbing news about a Marine from my community who was killed in Iraq this past Tuesday night. His name is Joseph Tremblay and he was 23 years old. My sister knows this young man, her husbands younger brother is best friends with this Marine. The humvee he was traveling in was hit by a makeshift road side bomb. Please pray for his family, his fiancee, and Joseph Tremblay himself. Thanks.
Prayers going out now. Sorry for your loss. I hope the family has a good support circle in the community.
Not sorry the left didn't get these pictures in time for the election, which was their only goal. In 2008, things will be doing better in Iraq making these pictures useless as an issue.
I have to keep telling the left, this isn't a sideshow.
In a very loose sense, yes.
But the military often will---as I know from having lost a elder brother 38 years ago (he was an A-4 driver)over a rice paddy far away, be very careful about the dissemination of such photos or info on NOK.
You seem to forget that someone has to FILE a FOIA request to force their release. Guess who were the whiners?
It wasn't the tooth fairy.
Again, it comes back to motive. The MSM and other groups have their very specific agenda. It is NOT to support the troops or their families. The MSM could care less about them.
This policy is not from the Bush administration. Censorship you say? It is rather anti-explotation if anything.
All I did was sit in the jump seat from Iraq to Kuwait...and then salute at the debarkation point.
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