How families learn of military deaths in Iraq

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/28/sprj.irq.dreaded.visit.ap/index.html

Catherine Perusse remembers the chilling call she and husband Ted got one recent Tuesday. The military phoned to tell them their son, Robert T. Benson, of Spokane, Washington, had been badly wounded in Iraq and transferred to a hospital in Kuwait. Surgery had gone "as planned."

That's the last thing the family heard until 20 hours later when they were told he was dead.

"We were just very frustrated to have a 20-hour time period with a very brief message about his status," says Perusse, Benson's stepmother. "You would consider five minutes a terrible time to wait to hear about your child."

There is no good way to tell someone their husband, wife, son or daughter has been killed in action.

Still, as the bodies of U.S. servicemen come home from Iraq, some families are disquieted by the military's handling of this heartbreaking news.

[cliss]

1. I'm just curious:

did the military handle US deaths this way when we were in VietNam, as well? Send the bodies home in the dead of night. A ban on newspaper reports. Hide the deaths and injuries as much as possible.

Did they do the same thing when soldiers returned home from VietNam? I was too young to notice. Or is this a new development?

I think this is deplorable. It goes to show you that this is not a legitimate war. Everything about it reeks. As a very famous man said, about 2,000 years ago: "by his actions you will know him".

[RamboLiberal]

2. Actually they did it far worse at the beginning

They sent telegrams deliverd by taxi drivers. That was detailed in both the book and movie "We Were Soldiers".

And in WWII the news was delivered by a Western Union telegraph.

[IndianaGreen]

3. God, I hate this war!

Ted Benson and Catherine Perusse
hold the flag and ribbons they
received after their son
Spc. Robert T. Benson’s was
buried last week.

I would rather they be holding their son, very much alive, in their arms.

God, I hate this war!