Army told parents who wanted to see their dead son that they would be arrested if they persisted

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.newsobserver.com/135/story/554580.html

No bugles for this soldier's death

<snip>"We immediately requested to go to Fort Bragg to see our son," Bob Pesta said. "We were refused."

"I just wanted to hold his hand," Joan Pesta said. "I just wanted to say goodbye. They said we could not come and if we did, we'd be arrested."

It was at that moment -- when an Army functionary refused permission for the grieving parents to rush to to the side of their dead son -- that everything turned dark and sour at the Pesta house. The Army's explanation to the Pestas that there were no visiting facilities at the base morgue was not good enough for a family deep in shock and grief.

"There were too many questions and too few answers," Bob Pesta said. "No one one knew what anybody else was doing. They left us telephone numbers that didn't work or were connected to fax machines. Answering machines were full. It was a weekend and nobody would call us back."

[Monkeyman]

1. Crap that is pure bullshit. You never stop a family from seeing the love ones

Something is wrong here

[TomInTib]

2. "There were too many questions and too few answers," Bob Pesta said.

There it is right fucking there.

[Monkeyman]

3. Right on the money

[maggiegault]

13. Perhaps The Soldier Didn't Have A Hand To Hold.

Our troops are coming home in bits, pieces, and smithereens, folks.

I am not defending the Army, but I do have to wonder if maybe they were trying to spare the family further anguish. What can you say to a grieving mother..."sorry, but your kid was blown to bits"?

I don't know. I am just saying.

[BeHereNow]

14. See Walldude post below- the kid died at Fort Bragg, not in Iraq.

Something is suspicious for sure.
BHN

[maggiegault]

23. Yeah, I Saw That.

Indeed, now I believe that something is very rotten in Denmark.

Those poor, poor parents.

[shatter]

15. better than "we'll arrest you"

[DearAbby]

19. My Father died in a horrible Car Accident

I too wanted to say goodbye, I wanted to see his face again. I was told truthfully by the funeral director, that my Father was not suitable to view, that he would respect my wishes and allow me to see him, but advised against it. He told me as gently as possible, that the last image I would remember of my father is, either the one in my heart, or the condition he was in following this horrible accident. I took his advice...but I was never denied my right to view his body.

If the condition of the body is not suitable to view, why didn't they just come out and say it...these people are adults. They have the right to know.

[maggiegault]

24. Well, Now I Know The Truth About What Happened...

...but still, the Army is weird about how it handles a lot of sensitive stuff. I was just supposing.

That funeral director did you a great courtesy by being honest with you. For a while, I worked downtown in the County Attorney's office in the homicide bureau. Part of my job was to classify crime scene photos, many of them terribly graphic, with the bodies still in place.

The cops always handled the family members with great caring and dignity, and were brutally honest with the next of kin if the body was too messed up for viewing. Sometimes it didn't matter...the family wanted and needed to know what had happened to their loved one. This was especially true if the murder victim was a child.

And I am terribly sorry about your father.

[DearAbby]

39. thank you, maggiegault

:hug:

[dddem]

28. I'm sorry about your father.

[DearAbby]

41. Thank you, dddem

:hug: I love DU

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. Oh, like this has never happened before?

Since when have we been keeping the remains of loved ones from their families?

[bbgrunt]

45. I wouldn't think shutting them down with no further

communication is the way to prevent further anguish.

[Cha]

53. Well, then they could

see what remains were left. They know he's dead..some people can deal with reality.

[neuvocat]

46. "How and why did he die?"

[izzie]

29. Sounds off to me. Every one does different things at that time.

I even get mad when police on TV say this or that person did not act right so I knew things were wrong. Where are the rules saying you were act in such a way?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

4. Lies.

We are at critical mass with lies.

Everyone in any position of power lies.

It is universal, now.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. How horrifying........

I would be raising the roof right now....

And I hope they are......

What utter bullshit......they can't see their dead son? :nuke:

[DearAbby]

6. What total Bullshit, this is just WRONG

What are they hiding? Now they will not allow the family the right to view their own son's body? THERE IS SOMETHING VERY WRONG HERE.

[TomInTib]

7. K&R

because I forgot, earlier.

[Monkeyman]

9. Some timers huh

[TomInTib]

11. This is crap

I don't get it, at all.

These bastards have turned everything upside-down

[orwell]

8. The Bush Administration...

...winning the hearts and minds one family at a time.

So much for support the troops!

What utter bullshit...

[walldude]

10. Holy crap, the kid died at Ft Bragg

I thought he died in Iraq, and maybe there weren't enough remains to be viewed. This kid died of a supposed heart condition aggravated by pain killers? Man my bullshit alarm is screaming. Something seriously fishy here.

[BeHereNow]

12. Sounds like a suicide cover up or something- accidental death caused by military incompetency?

Something is rotten Denmarkbragg, that's for sure.
Wonder what they are hiding, don't you?
BHN

[walldude]

17. Yeah they seem to be worried that an Army doctor gave

the kid the pain killers, but even so, why hide the body? All I can think of is there was something they didn't want the parents to see. In the face of everything that's going on, they continue to crap on the soldiers and their families. Sickening.

[BeHereNow]

18. As the poster below said- his clothing was discarded...why?

Why were his clothes disposed of?
What are they hiding.
I don't buy the pain killer story.
Not for a minute.

BHN

[BeHereNow]

20. Quote from his mother-

"i want closure. I want to lay my head down and know how my son died.
I want to know the truth. What were they hiding? Why couldn't I see my son?"

Her grief-fueled anger at what she sees as government
indifference and lack of compassion for parents who
had lost their son boiled over last summer. During a heated
exchange with Army officials, she blurted out,
"What do I have to do, threaten to kill the president?"

"Two hours later, the Secret Service was here," she said.

Makes you want to puke, doesn't it.
God, I hate what the Bush/Cheney people have
done to this country. Especially the military families.
That poor woman.
They took her son from her and sent
the Secret Service to investigate a
statement made by a mother who had
just lost a child.
Despicable.
BHN

[MGD]

60. Wasn't a gay soldier beaten to death with baseball bats at Ft Bragg a while back?

[lala_rawraw]

59. i wonder if this is tied to the anthrax vaccine?

[AmyDeLune]

16. Something seriously wrong...

they're not allowed to veiw the body and the clothes he was wearing were "discarded"?

They're hiding something...

[aquart]

21. I'm assuming the family now has a lawyer?

[gauguin57]

22. This family should get the Tillmans involved. They take NO crap from the gov't.

They'll help this family get answers. They are the squeakiest wheels the military has had to deal with since this misbegotten mess started.

[alstephenson]

37. Good suggestion! eom

[intaglio]

25. 3 possibilities

1) Suicide, all too frequent in returnees and the Army would be scared to admit that a soldier on base had been able to kill himself.

2) Hazing/bullying death - particularly if the NCOs wrongly believed his back injury was "faked"

3) The Army is telling the truth - and are terrified of a lawsuit because one of their Medics prescribed a COX-2 inhibitor as the painkiller. COX-2 inhibitors are the class of drugs that Vioxx is/was in.

[left is right]

26. 4th possibility abd the one I thought of immediately

radiation poisoning from exposure to depleted uranium

[file83]

51. There are about 1000 reasons they could have for hiding something...

...and not 1 reason is justified.

[lumberjack_jeff]

58. Discarded the clothing? Sounds plausible. n/t

[ngant17]

27. truth is the first casualty of war

and a tangled web is growing on this mess.

Possibly there is a tip of the iceberg here. When military 'close ranks', they are hiding something to protect higher-ups. By the nature of their intransience, very likely a number of officers will get axed once more facts are exposed, instead of getting medals and promotions.

These people don't deserve medals and promotions, they deserve to be exposed for the incompetent fools that they were, and the story of the death of this soldier might in fact save other lives in the long run.

Definitely pursue this with a vengenance, it's your own personal rage against 'the machine' now. It's all about freedom, isn't it? That's what the war was about? A dead soldier should have a right to get some delayed justice, if anything for closure to the family after all is said and done.

[malaise]

30. So won't the parents be given their son's body for burial

Don't they have the right to have the body exhumed to find out why he died? I can't believe this shit. They would have to arrest me. Is it fascism yet?

[RebelOne]

34. Did you read the article? He was cremated.

Some of Chris' ashes were sprinkled on Ocracoke Island, some beside a favorite trout stream in the mountains, and some remain in a container near his father's side of the bed. The rest are in a small locket hanging on a chain around his mother's neck.

[malaise]

36. Holy shite! n/t

[blondie58]

31. this is outrageous

These poor grieving parents deserve to say goodbye to their son- not to be threatened with arrest.

Something has definitely happened here. I hope they get some answers- and peace.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Very fishy.

Sounds like another friendly fire incident.

[ms liberty]

35. So are they trying to hide how he died...

or are they trying to hide something else - like how many dead in their morgue?

[ecstatic]

42. Maybe veterans are bringing home a strange, deadly illness?

:shrug:

[Supersedeas]

38. Bush tyle Support for the Troops and their families -- Sloganeering

[merh]

40. well, cremating him did away with any hope

for real answers

the body held the answers and they cremated it.

the government can continue to lie and nothing the family has will be able to dispute the lies

[yardwork]

43. This is really bad. k&r

[Rosemary2205]

44. AND the army called the secret service on his mom!!

jerks.......

[southern_belle]

47. This is infuriating!!! k& r :(

[Hestia]

48. Isn't Ft Bragg the place with all the gang activity and murder rates

higher than the general population? A close family member was stationed there, and he called me one day and said that there had been four murders on the base in that month! Also, isn't that the place where the guys coming back from Iraq killed their wives? Ft Bragg is a hell hole. Knowing that, I wonder if they didn't want the family to see knife wounds or gunshot wounds? Wouldn't the mortuary be able to tell? If it was my son, I'd contact the coroner and get them on the case.

Sorry, now see where he was cremated - wonder who's idea that was?

[file83]

50. Fort Bragg is the largest Army installation in the world - by population.

About 250,000 soldiers and family members. It's also big. It covers 250 square miles and extends into 6 counties. They have all kinds of special forces stationed there (including Green Berets and Psych Warfare) - so you know wome wierd shit is going to happen.

The only reason the military would ever cremate a body without the family's permission would be to cover something up. Question is, what?

[robinlynne]

49. The army can't cremate without the family's permission. I don't think anyone can do that.

[Cha]

52. Your son has been killed in bush's misbegotten

War On Iraq and then you go to the next phase of Twilight Zone.

I would want to hold my son's hand, too.

[bagrman]

54. This is wrong is so many ways.

[lonestarnot]

55. Don't they know yet that young Pesta was just a number?

[B Calm]

56. If my son came home dead from this illegal war, the ss would have to kill me!

[TacticalPeek]

57. Jesus!

[Gabi Hayes]

61. somebody NEEDS to post this at freeperville

please.....

[Gabi Hayes]

62. btw..what do they have to say over there about

Tillman?