Posted on 10/13/2013 4:32:42 AM PDT by IbJensen
My heart is just sick over this.
The Pentagon just admitted that those heart-rending “arrival ceremonies” at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, wherein an honor guard carries off a cargo plane the flag-draped coffins supposedly containing the remains of soldiers killed in battle ARE ALL STAGED.
The coffins are empty. Even the cargo planes are fake — they don’t fly.
~Eowyn
(Just phony theater: An honor detail comprised of joint military members prepares to escort the remains of fallen servicemembers who died during World War II and the Vietnam War during an arrival ceremony April 26, 2013, hosted by the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. (Photo by Sean Furey/U.S. Navy))
The Department of Defense unit charged with recovering servicemembers’ remains abroad has been holding phony “arrival ceremonies” for seven years, with an honor guard carrying flag-draped coffins off of a cargo plane as though they held the remains returning that day from old battlefields.
The Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday that no honored dead were in fact arriving, and that the planes used in the ceremonies often couldn’t even fly, and were towed into position. The story was first reported on nbcnews.com.
The ceremonies at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii are held up as a sign of the nation’s commitment to its fallen warriors. They have been attended by veterans and families of MIAs, led to believe that they were witnessing the return of Americans killed in World War II, Vietnam and Korea.
In a statement sent to NBC News, the Pentagon wrote:
“Part of the ceremony involves symbolically transferring the recovered remains from an aircraft to a vehicle for follow-on transportation to the lab. Many times, static aircraft are used for the ceremonies, as operational requirements dictate flight schedules and aircraft availability. This transfer symbolizes the arrival of our fallen servicemembers.
“It is important to note that recovered remains ceremoniously transferred from the aircraft to the [bus] have been in the lab undergoing forensic analysis to determine identity. When remains first arrive in Hawaii, JPAC cannot confirm if the remains are those of an American servicemember.”
NBC writes that the ceremonies have been known among some of the military and civilian staff at the base as The Big Lie.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, has come under intense scrutiny in recent months after two scathing reports were released this summer.
In July, The Associated Press ran a story exposing a 2012 internal JPAC report that found the agency to be “acutely dysfunctional” with some missions that amounted to little more than paid vacations for staffers.
A second investigation released weeks later by the Government Accountability Office found that Pentagon efforts to account for fallen troops missing overseas were inefficient and in need of overhaul, according to congressional sources.
In 2010, lawmakers mandated JPAC to reach an annual goal of recovering at least 200 fallen troops from overseas battlefields by 2015, but it had failed to build the capacity to do so, the GAO found. Currently the Hawaii-based command averages less than 70 individuals per year.
Much of the inefficiency found by the GAO researchers comes down to a turf war between JPAC and the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, which shares some of the same responsibilities, Congressional sources said.
The show
According to the NBC report, here’s what the audience was shown:
A C-17 military transport aircraft was parked, its ramp down, outside a hangar at the base. After generals and dignitaries were introduced, a military chaplain said a prayer, the audience sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and “Taps” was played. Then an honor guard carried flag-draped transfer cases, which look like coffins, down the ramp and placed them in the back of blue buses, which were driven away.
The emcee thanked the audience for “welcoming them home.” The script continued, “After removal from the aircraft, the remains will be taken to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command’s Central Identification Laboratory. There, JPAC scientists will begin the identification process.”
Citing eyewitnesses and photographs taken behind the scenes, NBC wrote that what actually happened is very different:
Before 6 a.m., the honor guard assembled behind the JPAC headquarters on the base. They loaded transfer cases onto the buses and drove to the hangar.
The honor guard loaded the transfer cases into the pre-positioned C-17, then rehearsed for the ceremony. They then returned to the plane, and waited.
The public was allowed in for the 9 a.m. ceremony: invited politicians, media, families of the missing and veterans. Employees from JPAC were bused over to fill out the crowd.
Then the show began, with tears and salutes as the remains were marched to the buses, then driven off to the lab to “begin the identification process.”
Jesse Baker, an 81-year-old Air Force veteran of World War II and Korea living in Honolulu, told NBC News that he has been to more than 50 of these ceremonies. He said he’s always been under the impression that the plane had just arrived carrying recovered remains.
Baker tried to make sense of why the DOD would work so hard to trick him and other veterans. “That’s disturbing. I don’t know when they stopped being honest and switched over to this Mickey Mouse, but whoever did it, I hope they find him a new job somewhere.”
John Molloy, Chairman of the National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition, whom I am honored to call my friend, wrote this email:
Compatriots,
Phony ceremonies for 7 years.
That means that both Obama and Bush administrations are complicit.
The Secretaries of Defense Panetta and Gates are complicit. And DASD’s [Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense] Newberry, Ray and General Tom are too.
So they have all followed in the footsteps of liars Kissinger, GHW Bush, Powell, Cheney, Carter, Clinton, Armitage, et al.
Someone needs to break out the rope. It’s time.
John John Molloy Chairman National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition
I don’t understand why this is a scandal. It’s the idea of honoring these dead soldiers that’s the point.
Like the Ottoman Empire circa 1910.
Still covers a lot of the world, lots of pomp, but rotten to the core and ready to collapse.
We can do fake hangings, when actually using a firing squad for these scum.
And Odumbo adopted it.
“”Let’s just do it this one time since we need to. We won’t do it again.”
Even good people get sucked under by that.”
We agree.
Sooooo, When The POTUS and Hellary had that HUGE PHOTO-OP when they returned the 4 assassinated Benghazi victims bodies, ALL 4 were empty? I’m sure Hellary’s Presidential Campaign believes this fact is going to go away. Not in my lifetime! Ugh, Scourges of the earth, every last RAT.
In a volunteer army you get a different mix than in a drafted army. Some remain goofs from boot camp to their discharge, nothing new there but in a conscript army, the some of the parts benefit and so do those individuals drafted. Come on, we all know this to be true.
The very idea of give and take, contributing to the nation and benefiting from the nation would be restored. A sense of individual, unit, service and nation pride would result AND upon discharge, they would look around his/her surroundings in very different fashion, with more of an appreciation and respect than he/she had before their service.
It is pretty simple and would improve the nation body better than it is today.
If the casket is empty, what are you praying for?
The remains of a serviceman or women is to be treated as is done in the ceremony but this should not be for an empty box and for show. If you’re going to invest the time and effort to show respect for the fallen, it should be a real, no?
We’re doing a fake war on terror.
We’re being “lead” by a fake leader.
The programs and policies of this administration are fake and designed for show.
Why not fake ceremonies as well? It’s all designed for one purpose and one purpose only - to make BHO look good.
A.) I would bet the majority of the chief crap weasels who are busily undermining our society today reached adulthood during that time that the United States had a draft. Clearly, they were not helped by compulsory military service.
B.) We did not have a draft for the majority of this country's history, yet somehow we never lacked for patriotic citizens until the last 50 years, or so. We would be better served getting FedGuv and the America haters out of our educational system, rather than instituting involuntary military service.
C.) You never addressed my point about your assumption about what kind of training the draftees would be receiving. You assume they would benefit from service rather than being a captive audience to Bill Ayers-type indoctrination. Lots of countries have had a draft - not many are / were bastions of Freedom.
D.) How does the military benefit by having to deal with large numbers of people who have absolutely no desire to serve - particularly when there is no national emergency? These people become distractions and impediments to readiness. The military has a pretty specific mission - correcting the miseducation of today's youth really isn't its job.
Sodomy is held to a higher standard than the honor of our fallen heroes.
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