Quarrel Stirs on Flag-Drapped Coffins

Michael Wieger knows the pain of losing a son to war. Air Force Staff Sgt. David A. Wieger, of North Huntingdon, died in Iraq in the fall of 2007, when an enemy explosive detonated near his Humvee.

The funeral at the Norwin Christian Church for the 28-year-old special investigator was solemn and reflective. A 150-vehicle caravan followed his flag-draped coffin to Penn-Lincoln Memorial Park. Small clusters of people waving flags lined the route.

"The Air Force was so good about everything," his father remembered.

The military flew one of David's best military friends from California to Dover, Del., to escort his body back to Westmoreland County.

The Dover Air Force Base is the U.S. military's point of return for the fallen in the war on terror. It played a similar role during the Vietnam War.

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And while the local reporters and photographers covered Wieger's funeral and burial, there were none at Dover. Under a 1991 directive of the Pentagon, news photographers are barred from the base.

The Obama administration recently undertook a review of the ban. The American Legion, for one, opposes lifting the 18-year-long prohibition. The National Press Photographers Association is in favor.

Michael Wieger's feelings are mixed.

"It depends on how it's done," he said. "If it's plastered over all the media with everyone knowing the names (of the fallen), I think that would be hard for families. But if it's done without knowing the names, that might be OK. You want some privacy."

American Legion national commander David K. Rehbein said photographing military coffins at Dover would be "little short of sacrilege."

"The practice would be intrusive and hurtful to the warriors' families," Rehbein stated in a news release.

Terry Murray, pastor of the Pennsville Baptist Church, abhors the idea of news cameras on standby for the next shipment of war dead.

Murrary, who presided at services in October 2006 for Shelby James Feniello, a 25-year-old Marine from Connellsville killed in Iraq, said that "anything that comes out of Washington" is suspect because "everything has a political meaning."

Murray feels the national media plays political favorites. In the event the ban on cameras at Dover is rescinded, networks partial to President Obama would not rush to air video of soldier's coffins coming back from Afghanistan, he said.

"It's a bad idea," said Ron Conley, director of Veterans Affairs for Allegheny County.

Conley worries there are "some people with no consideration who will try to exploit the deaths of these soldiers. Have we gotten so far past 9/11 that we are going to use the number of soldiers who die stop us from protecting our country?"

Thoms Monari, an American Legion district commander from Oakdale, said Soldiers, Sailors and Marines should not be required in death to play a role for those with a "negative purpose."

Monari said he feared "a big media blitz" triggered by the sight of rows of flag-draped coffins lined up on the Dover tarmac.

Leroy "Whitey" Schaller, of Bolivar, said he never understood the prohibition. A veteran of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, he argued it was based on political considerations with the goal of shielding the public from disturbing images.

"We're too willing to just give the soldier a pat on the back without really doing anything for him or understanding what he goes through," said Schaller, who still feels the effects of the frostbite he suffered in the Ardennes Forest more than a half-century ago.

Schaller said the photos would be a bracing dose of reality for a public that considers the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only infrequently and at a distance.

John McCabe, executive vice president of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Oakland, said there is nothing more stirring or ennobling than a flag-draped coffin. It represents, he said, "the flag displayed in the most honorable way."

"When I see a flag-draped coffin it reminds me of the sacrifices that are necessary for freedom," said McCabe, a major in the Army Reserves. "It's a fact. Nothing can change that. We can't control how people perceive things. We can only deal in facts."

National Press Photographers Association president Bob Carey said in a statement his group believes the ban on media coverage of "the return of our fallen heroes" violates "the very principles of free speech and free exchange of ideas for which these very heroes have died."

A group called Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission said "if the administration is demanding a change, then we strongly believe that the decision should be left to family members of the fallen hero."