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The box, known in the military as a transfer case, was made of metal and had handles along the front and sides.
It looked heavy.
An American flag was draped over it.
Susan Atooli, knowing the body of her son was inside, seemed to deflate as it was lowered to the ground from a small jet. As she walked toward it, she was supported by her husband on one side, an Army soldier on the other.
Her legs buckled. And her sobs – a mother's sobs, long and deep – filled the air. She bent over the box, her left hand clutching her mouth, and then she was led away.
The body of Army Spc. Omar Albrak, killed in a motor-vehicle crash in Iraq on May 9, was returned by charter jet to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station on Friday.
Normally, the media don't have access to such a moment, said Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, a Pentagon spokesman. A change in policy that allows such coverage at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware applies only there, and only if the family agrees, he said.
Atooli, who is against the war in Iraq, wanted the newspaper at Miramar to see the return of her son, and base officials complied.
She wanted the paper present because she wanted to show the cost of war.
“War has a price tag,” Atooli said to me afterward, her eyes still moist. “It's this. It's death.”
When her son died, he was just a few days shy of turning 21.
“Our lives are so detached from this war,” said Atooli, an Escondido resident. “We should care. These are our children coming back in these coffins.”
At Miramar on Friday, men and women in uniform stood by silently. Friends and family and other military personnel watched, some with tears in their eyes.
A hearse waited.
Soon after the plane landed, its cargo door opened and ramps were put in place. First came a wooden coffin to be used for Albrak's burial.
Next came that flag-draped transfer case.
“It's difficult. They're all difficult,” said William Dandalides, 64, a Navy veteran and member of the Patriot Guard Riders, a veterans group that came to show its respect.
When the casket was lowered, the older veterans unfurled American flags that snapped in the wind. One of the jet pilots stood in the cargo hold, his hand over his heart.
Lance Cpl. Melissa Fahey of the Marine Corps color guard told me it was her first time presiding over a fallen soldier's return. She normally takes part in military retirements and other ceremonies.
“It was difficult,” she told me, but she didn't have to.
She was crying.
Atooli had gone to Dover on Tuesday to see her son's body arrive in the United States, but she wasn't allowed near the transfer case, she said.
That was the day of his 21st birthday. He worked as a translator/aide and had been in Iraq since 2006.
He had planned to take his mother and aunt out to a club when he came home for a visit next month, because he would finally be of age.
“He was so young,” his mother said.
Atooli is not upset with the military. She's proud of what it does. She's proud of her son's service.
But she's angry at the politicians who started the war. She's angry that more people aren't seeing the horrors of that war.
Since 1991, the military had not allowed the media to photograph the war dead when they're sent to Dover.
The government said the ban was to ensure privacy for grieving families.
Tom Richards, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and a Navy Cross recipient from the Vietnam War, is against any ban on photographs.
“We need to understand that people dying and getting wounded is all part of the free and open discussion of whether we should go to war,” Richards said.
Atooli, for one, thinks the losses are being forgotten.
After what I witnessed Friday, I'll never forget.
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It looked heavy.
An American flag was draped over it.
Susan Atooli, knowing the body of her son was inside, seemed to deflate as it was lowered to the ground from a small jet. As she walked toward it, she was supported by her husband on one side, an Army soldier on the other.
Her legs buckled. And her sobs – a mother's sobs, long and deep – filled the air. She bent over the box, her left hand clutching her mouth, and then she was led away.
The body of Army Spc. Omar Albrak, killed in a motor-vehicle crash in Iraq on May 9, was returned by charter jet to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station on Friday.
Normally, the media don't have access to such a moment, said Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, a Pentagon spokesman. A change in policy that allows such coverage at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware applies only there, and only if the family agrees, he said.
Atooli, who is against the war in Iraq, wanted the newspaper at Miramar to see the return of her son, and base officials complied.
She wanted the paper present because she wanted to show the cost of war.
“War has a price tag,” Atooli said to me afterward, her eyes still moist. “It's this. It's death.”
When her son died, he was just a few days shy of turning 21.
“Our lives are so detached from this war,” said Atooli, an Escondido resident. “We should care. These are our children coming back in these coffins.”
At Miramar on Friday, men and women in uniform stood by silently. Friends and family and other military personnel watched, some with tears in their eyes.
A hearse waited.
Soon after the plane landed, its cargo door opened and ramps were put in place. First came a wooden coffin to be used for Albrak's burial.
Next came that flag-draped transfer case.
“It's difficult. They're all difficult,” said William Dandalides, 64, a Navy veteran and member of the Patriot Guard Riders, a veterans group that came to show its respect.
When the casket was lowered, the older veterans unfurled American flags that snapped in the wind. One of the jet pilots stood in the cargo hold, his hand over his heart.
Lance Cpl. Melissa Fahey of the Marine Corps color guard told me it was her first time presiding over a fallen soldier's return. She normally takes part in military retirements and other ceremonies.
“It was difficult,” she told me, but she didn't have to.
She was crying.
Atooli had gone to Dover on Tuesday to see her son's body arrive in the United States, but she wasn't allowed near the transfer case, she said.
That was the day of his 21st birthday. He worked as a translator/aide and had been in Iraq since 2006.
He had planned to take his mother and aunt out to a club when he came home for a visit next month, because he would finally be of age.
“He was so young,” his mother said.
Atooli is not upset with the military. She's proud of what it does. She's proud of her son's service.
But she's angry at the politicians who started the war. She's angry that more people aren't seeing the horrors of that war.
Since 1991, the military had not allowed the media to photograph the war dead when they're sent to Dover.
The government said the ban was to ensure privacy for grieving families.
Tom Richards, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and a Navy Cross recipient from the Vietnam War, is against any ban on photographs.
“We need to understand that people dying and getting wounded is all part of the free and open discussion of whether we should go to war,” Richards said.
Atooli, for one, thinks the losses are being forgotten.
After what I witnessed Friday, I'll never forget.
Link
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