That's what we call a Powerful image.... Great Post Matt

Wow!!! If that doesn't bring a tear to your eye....

Great share!

Kevin

The picture looks staged to me....

Either way.... that does nothing to take away from the gravity of the moment.

I carried many KIA soldiers home during my career...stretching back to the Viet Nam war when casulities were sometimes hundreds per week. How different it was back then. Often the bodies were unaccompanied. I recall bringing a soldier home to Waterloo,Iowa. When his casket was unloaded it fell off of the belt loader as they drove right in front of the cockpit.. A bunch of ground personel came out and loaded it back onto the belt loader. No ceremony...no nothing. Later a "made for TV movie " was produced about that very G.I.

So different during the last decade of my career. Great dignity...always an honor guard. I would make a P.A. announcement and ask the passengers to remain seated until the honor guard had gotten off the airplane. It is possible that some captains may have asked them to remain seated until the casket was removed. I never did that.

I would go down on the ramp and watch the process. Normally the hearse would come out onto the ramp and back up to the airplane. An honor guard would unload the casket and carry it to the waiting hearse. Sometimes family would be on the ramp. Another honor guard often stood by at attention. The presence varied from one event to the other. Always....very moving.

Too bad the Viet Nam era guys were ignored. 58,000 dead. Mostly draftees.... not a professional military as today. Sometimes I think that our society is now overcompensating for the shameful treatment of Viet Nam vets and the collective guilt of those old enough to remember.

Bob

Watch "Taking Chance" which was a damn good movie about USMC LTC Michael Strobl escorting the remains of a young Marine, Chance Phelps, back home to Wyoming. It was right on the money about attitudes in the civilian world, and sacrifices warriors and their families make for us.

Gump

z3skybolt wrote: Sometimes I think that our society is now overcompensating for the shameful treatment of Viet Nam vets and the collective guilt of those old enough to remember.

Bob

Overcompensating how? Because a fallen servicemember now receives some measure of honor?

You are right, it's not like it was nor should it have ever been that way.

Chris

I was at a window seat right over the cargo area where this happened and the captain asked us to wait. I was crying like a baby.

Taking Chance is a great movie. It was interesting that out of all the chance encounters of the LTC Michael Strobl, there was only one who showed no understanding. Take a guess who.

I was at PHX Sky Harbor one night... and just happened to look out into the darkness during the unloading event of a soldier coming home for the last time.
The family was there gathered in the darkness. It was very dignified. I felt awkward, with tears in my eyes... since no one else in the terminal bothered to look out into the dark night.
Thinking back to 1970, it sure wasn't the same. My fellow soldiers got spit on and yelled at upon arriving stateside. What a bitter memory. Remember this Jane.... we don't forget. Ever.

I have watched Taking Chance and was greatly moved by it. God Bless all the men and women who serve this country.

And no, it was not staged or Photoshopped. The gentleman that took the picture and wrote that story received a Pulitzer Prize for it.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/specia ... al-salute/

A good friend of mine flew the AC-47, and told me about the horrible treatment he got when he returned home. That hurt and feeling of betrayal is still with him 40 years later.

Only now, because of what happened to returning Viet Nam vets, are American citizens smart enough to separate their agreement or disagreement with the war, from their respect and thanks to the kids who go and fight and do what their country asks them to do. It was a bitter lesson, and yet another price that the Viet Nam vets paid to make America a better place in a backwards sort of way.

One of the few things that our returning warriors of today owe anybody, is that they owe a vote of thanks to those that paid that price and endured that suffering coming back from Viet Nam, which has finally sunk in to the general population.

GumpAir wrote:Watch "Taking Chance" which was a damn good movie about USMC LTC Michael Strobl escorting the remains of a young Marine, Chance Phelps, back home to Wyoming. It was right on the money about attitudes in the civilian world, and sacrifices warriors and their families make for us.

Gump

Here's a scene from the movie that mirrors the photo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiNLFRjwqFE

I agree with the posters below: thank a serviceman (or woman) for their service, and do the same for every veteran who served.

Alan

mountainmatt wrote:I have watched Taking Chance and was greatly moved by it. God Bless all the men and women who serve this country.

And no, it was not staged or Photoshopped. The gentleman that took the picture and wrote that story received a Pulitzer Prize for it.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/specia ... al-salute/

Matt,

Photographers are not allowed on secure ramp areas without special arrangement: which in and of itself creates opportunities for manipulation "staging" of the scene.

Remember the photo of Marines raising the flag on Mt. Seribachi at Iwo Jima? That photo won the Pulitzer Prize as well. Pehaps it is the most famous photo of WW-2. The Marines in the picture became heroes.

It was staged after the fact!! An entire generation of Americans were fooled.

The reality of the circumstance is SACRED. The tragic loss does not need to be dramatized.

Bob

Bob, thank you for laying the facts out there. I agree with you whole heartily.

One of the people who participated in raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi (One of the few still alive if not the last one) is based out of my home airport, Bill Seltzer. He has an Ercoupe but cannot fly it any more because he's wheelchair bound. But thank goodness his mind is still sharp, and he will sit and talk to people about how it really was on that day, the "staging" of the famous photo, etc. etc. Not often do you get to shake hands with history like that. I've been very fortunate to meet him, and to have met and known a few other people who were prominent in other areas of world history.