FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2010
KLMNO
EZ SU POLITICS & THE NATION Somber ritual as six are welcomed home Delegation of dignitaries joins loved ones at Air Force base to honor soldiers slain in ambush by Afghan police officer
BY CRAIGWHITLOCK IN DOVER, DEL.
Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base, about 9,000 miles from a remote place where a treacherous Afghan border policeman had gunned them down two days before. The plane’s side hatch gaped open and a crew of airmen stood straight and somber, wait- ing for the proper moment to lower their deceased comrades to American soil. A chill wind blew. The first three metal transfer
A
cases—the military does not call them caskets— rested on a cargo lifter outside the hatch. Each case was draped with the Stars and Stripes, the flags drawn taut and cornered. At 7:39 p.m., someone pressed a button, and the cases eased slowly downward. Inside were the bodies of one soldier named Buddy, another named Barry, another named Jacob, making the final journey home to three small towns across Ameri- ca.
Waiting to greet the young
men who had died for their country were an Air Force chap- lain, a seven-member white- gloved carry guard, and an un- usually large group of VIPs. The latter including several Pentagon and White House officials re- sponsible for the war in Afghani- stan.
Standing solemnly in three
rows, heads bowed, were national security adviser Thomas E. Doni- lon; Antony Blinken, the top na- tional security aide to Vice Presi- dent Biden; Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy; and the man who invited them to make the trip to Dover, MarineGen. JamesE. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gathering several yards be-
hind on the tarmac: a clutch of mothers and fathers and brothers and one family friend, simultane- ously grief-stricken and proud. On this evening, the return
would occur in two phases. The first was for families who had given permission to four journal- ists to observe the proceedings. The other was for relatives who requested privacy to welcome home the remains of Staff Sgt. Curtis A. Oakes of Athens, Ohio;
Sgt. Barry E. Jarvis
Pvt. Austin G. Staggs
Spec. Matthew W. Ramsey of Quartz Hill, Calif.; and Pfc. Aus- tin G. Staggs of Senoia, Ga. Such scenes have become fa-
miliar at Dover since April 2009, when the long-closed military ritual of welcoming home the dead was opened to the public, as long as relatives approve. As the death toll climbs forU.S. troops in Afghanistan, the cargo planes land at Dover with greater fre- quency. They unload one body, two bodies, six bodies at a time, often in the dead of night, usually with only a handful of the living to witness the human cost of a long-running, faraway war. As of Thursday, 466U.S. troops had been killed this year while
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Pfc. JacobA. Gassen
Staff Sgt. CurtisA. Oakes
serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, the military’s name for the war in Afghanistan, accord- ing to
icasualties.org. That’s by far the highest annual total since 2001, and about one third of the cumulative toll of more than 1,400. Public opinion surveys show
that most Americans now oppose the war. The six soldiers flown back to
Dover on Wednesday were all members of the same unit of the 101st Airborne Division: 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regi- ment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Campbell, Ky. All were killed Monday when an Afghan border police officer
Pvt. BuddyW. McLain
Spec.Matthew W. Ramsey
opened fire on their unit during a training mission in Nangarhar province near the Pakistani bor- der. Although details of what happened remain uncertain, Af- ghan officials said that the assail- ant had been recruited into the border police two years ago but that somewhere along the line, he fell in with the Taliban. The Taliban issued a statement
praising the officer — who was killed in a subsequent shootout— for turning on the Americans who had been trying to train him. The military refers to the ritual
of bringing the fallen back to Dover as a “dignified transfer.”An Air Force chaplain offers a brief prayer, but there are no speeches,
1800 to thePresent BILL O'LEARY/WASHINGTON POST
MarineGen. James E. Cartwright, left, national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon, second from left, and other dignitaries arrive for the transfer of the remains of sixU.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
white Boeing 747 carrying
the six dead soldiers touched down after dusk
on
washingtonpost.com Sorrow and respect
ISee images of the dignified
washingtonpost.com/nation
no bugles, no guns fired into the air.
On Wednesday, the living sa-
luted sharply as an Army carry guard lifted the first transfer case and gently slid it into a waiting white van. Inside was the body of Sgt. 1st Class Barry E. Jarvis, 36, of Tell City, Ind., an Ohio River town of about 8,000 people named for the legendary Swiss archer William Tell. His wife, Tina, observed from
the distance. “I miss Barry,” she wrote in a message on his Face- book page. Next was the transfer case for
Pfc. Jacob A. Gassen, of Beaver Dam, Wis., population 15,000. A medic, Gassen had celebrated his 21st birthday in Afghanistan less than two weeks before he was killed. “He wasmy little boy. I’mgoing
to miss him badly,” his father, Greg Gassen, told the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen. Friends from the Class of 2008 at Beaver Dam High School have already set up a scholarship fund in the soldier’s memory. The third transfer case held
Pvt. Buddy W. McLain, 24, of Mexico, Maine, a mill town of 3,000 people. Among the family he leaves behind are his wife and high school sweetheart, Chelsea, and their 15-month-old son, Owen. After the van shut its doors, it
was escorted slowly down the flight line by a policeSUV, its blue and red lights flashing. TheArmy carry guard followed
on foot, with the official party of dignitaries bringing up the rear. The procession continued in si- lence for about 200 yards, into the darkness. Ahead lay the mor- tuary.
whitlockc@washpost.com transfer ceremony that was
one of the final steps in bringing home six servicemen killed in Afghanistan.
DIGEST KANSAS
Veteran accused of stalking protesters A decorated Army veteranwho
joined the service at age 17 and lost his legs while serving in Af- ghanistan now faces charges of stalking members of the contro- versialWestboro Baptist Church. Prosecutors charged Ryan
Newell, 26, with fivemisdemean- ors Thursday, including stalking and three counts of criminal use of a firearmin an incident involv- ing the Topeka church’s founding Phelps family. He also was chargedwith false impersonation of a lawenforcement officer. The Phelps family often pro-
tests at military funerals, saying that the deaths of soldiers are God’s way of punishing the coun- try for homosexuality. Newell was arrested Tuesday
after a detective saw him follow- ing a van carrying Westboro church members. In his vehicle, investigators found an M4 rifle, .45-caliber handgun and .38-cali- ber handgun and, according to sources, more than 90 rounds of ammunition. Newell, who received the
Bronze Star and Purple Heart, remained jailed after bail was set at $500,000. His wife declined to talk to a
reporter. —Wichita Eagle CALIFORNIA
Judgewon’t pull out of Prop 8 appeal case A federal appeals judge in San
Francisco refused Thursday to disqualify himself from hearing the appeal of a ruling that over- turned Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sexmarriage. Supporters of Proposition 8
sought to remove U.S. Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt from the case, highlighting his wife’s leadership of the Southern Cali- fornia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union — “active participants in this very lawsuit.” Reinhardt is one of three judg-
es on
theU.S.Court ofAppeals for the 9th Circuit who will hear ar- guments intheappealonMonday. —Associated Press
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