Dead soldiers shipped back home as "freight" on commercial airliners

[Postman]

http://stripes.com/article.asp?article=33689§ion=104

How dignified and respectful of their sacrifice. On the other hand, maybe the survivors should just shut the hell up, salute George W. Bush and be grateful they have a body to bury as Bernard Edelman suggests....

[Maggie_May]

1. This is a disgrace they really support the troops

oops maybe if they are still alive.

[nini]

2. I'm sorry.. but how are they supposed to be returned?

This is normal for any body being flown.

[AlCzervik]

3. usually it's on a c-130 military cargo plane with attendants there

for the trip and not underneath in the baggage area on a commercial flight.

[madeline_con]

6. The C 130 is only for part of the trip.

The rest is standard practice. The local recruiter is supposed to be there as an honor guard, according to discussios this past weekend.

[nini]

10. That makes sense to me

and is how I understand it.

[nini]

7. There should be military personnel there to take the body

Agreed.


Whether or not it's a commercial flight shouldn't be an issue as long as they get them home as soon as possible.

[tx_dem41]

22. If you read the article, this practice of using commercial flights has...

been used since at least the Vietnam War. Its not like it was invented for this war.

[...of J.Temperance]

23. Mistake

self-delete.

[0007]

5. Duh!

[nini]

13. care to elaborate a bit?

:shrug:

[Postman]

8. Would Bush's daughters be flown in as freight?

or is it just the unwashed suckers?

[nini]

9. if they were in caskets.. probably

do you want them propped up in first class?

[lonestarnot]

14. Yeah sure prop their rich asses up in first class! Put a drink in one

hand and a smoke in the other! They'll be right at home I'm sure with the rest of the richie living dead.

[nini]

16. LOL

Now there's an image.. haha

[lonestarnot]

18. Glad you found it amusing. I amuse myself sometimes. But I was serious!

LOL

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. I would think, using the logic of "no competition" (which makes sense

in its own way and I can understand why that's the law), but using that logic, then the military shouldn't be able to transport anything, since transportation of all sortsof stuff is available in the private sector.

Those C5's carrying food and tents and things for the soldiers should be getting delivered by UPS.

And on and on.

I don't know that's any more disrespectful to send a body home on a commercial airliner - in some ways, it makes sense, and I bet the body does get home faster, and probably for cheaper than the military could do it. It's a much more efficient method.

I just think they're reasoning (non-competition) is wrong.

And on the other hand, if we're gonna ask someone to die in a war, I think We The People and the US Military should show them enough dignity by bringing them home outselves, even if it costs us $50,000. What's $50K in the grand scheme of the cost of war? Fucking piddly nothing shit.

[nini]

11. I agree cost shouldn't be an issue..

but logistically this makes the most sense.

If I was on the receiving end of that body, I'd want it there as quick as possible - which I would assume the airline network could accomodate this the easiest.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. In the old days....

the caskets were put on baggage cars at the head end of passenger trains and transported that way.

Really, this is nothing new. You want a first-class ticket for them?

Edited to add: a link

A soldier comes home

What shocks me is the title. Lance Corporal Matthew K. Serio was a Marine, not a soldier. That probably generated a few letters to the editor.

[lonestarnot]

15. Ticket yeah First Class hell yeah they deserve it!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. In the passenger cabin?

Do you think this might hamper an emergency exit?

[lonestarnot]

19. Who cares. In that type of an emergency, you'll be jumping bodies

anyway.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. I remembered this article describing what they do.

It's about how the body of a Marine was shipped home on a commercial flight; sounds like the process was handled very respectfully, and at least from the escort's description, it sounds like this is what would normally be done.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/04/taking_chance.html

[Warpy]

21. Well, that's certainly a way to hide the real numbers

Don't just ship them in the middle of the night and ban photographers, ship them as freight on international flights.