Woman: Soldier's Casket on Baggage Cart

[LetsGoMurphys]

The Army is investigating a woman's claim that a soldier's flag-draped casket was placed in an airport baggage cart with other luggage while being transferred between airline flights.
"The Army is always concerned with treating all of our fallen comrades' remains with the utmost dignity and respect," spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Arata said in a statement Thursday.

Cynthia Hoag, 56, a former Army reservist, said she was waiting for a flight at Rochester International Airport on Oct. 27 when she saw the coffin taken off a commercial flight along with passengers' luggage. A uniformed soldier accompanied the coffin as it was placed in a baggage car and transported to another flight, she said.

"At the very least, couldn't there have been a hearse to transport the fallen soldier?" Hoag asked in an essay in Tuesday's Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. "At the very least, couldn't there have been a group of soldiers to receive one of their own?


<http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/30/D8LNLSJ80.html> Read the whole thing, very disturbing. Who in their right mind could do this w/o thinking it was wrong?

[FyurFly]

1. Sick sick shit n/t

[Monkeyman]

2. FTA ALL THE WAY

Sick SOB's

[Journeyman]

3. Read the whole article and it's possible the woman's lying. . .

So until the whole story's known, think I'll withhold judgement.

[acmejack]

5. My first thought was the dimensions of a baggage cart.

I'll bet the airport guy is correct.

[rocktivity]

14. If the woman is lying, the airport and Army would have responded with facts

and explanations, not PR flack doubletalk!

But there's a very simple way to settle this--let's go to the surveillance tape, and don't tell me it's against policy or that the dog ate it!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Journeyman]

17. What sort of facts are you looking for? Besides, of course, the statement. . .

of procedures which the Army presented, something that is not PR doubletalk, and has been established procedures since at least the Vietnam conflict. You'd know this, if you'd served.

[rocktivity]

20. They can deny or confirm that the woman saw what she claims to

That's easy enough. And simply explaining what the procedures are doesn't explain why they weren't followed, or what's going to be done to prevent such a thing from happening again.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Journeyman]

21. What shred of evidence do you have the deceased was active duty? . . .

None. What scintilla of proof can you offer that this alleged coffin was not that of a retired military, being sent for burial by their family -- such a coffin would be accompanied by an honor guard pulled from the ranks of the Reserves, but its transport would not be the responsibility of the US armed forces or the government.

Better yet, what possible information can you bring to bear on the idea this incident ever happened, and isn't just the fevered imaginings of a drunken traveler? Remember, only four people -- and only one with a name -- are said to have witnessed this event in the heart of a busy airport?

As I stated at the outset, I'll reserve judgement until more is known. But hey -- jump to conclusions, fly off the handle, form whatever ignorant opinion you must -- I can't stop you and certainly reason won't get in your way.

[nini]

4. Hasn't this been going on all along?

I was under the impression commercial airlines were being used more and more - and this would be the way they get the casket off the plane.

[xxqqqzme]

16. I remember Cindy Sheehan telling of her son's body's

arrival and there was little dignity involved.

[Scairp]

6. I don't know

The Army is totally denying this could or would ever happen, and at the end of the article, it states that the reporter couldn't reach her again for the story. I will reserve judgment until I hear more.

[Lautremont]

7. Is there really a problem?

The body has to be transported somehow, and hearses don't rise up to meet airplane cargo bays. This is not the public part of the returning deceased's trip, this is the private part. The bereaved are not present. Utilitarian transport methods should be perfectly acceptable.

[dchill]

8. "utmost dignity"

These people don't even know what that means. Actions speak louder...

[LeftyMom]

9. If this is true, why is it an issue?

The time to respect people is when they're alive. Once they are dead, respecting the body is only an issue in that it's gentler on the family, and they weren't there to see. In any case, they weren't flinging the coffin about, they were just moving it with equipment for moving heavy stuff.

The idea that somebody needs to summon a hearse just to shuttle a coffin from one part of the airport to another is simply wasteful.

[LetsGoMurphys]

10. I just dont think that it should be w/ people's luggage

very disrespectful.

[LeftyMom]

11. But is there a logical reason why not or just vauge superstition?

I really don't see what the issue is.

[psychopomp]

12. If it was with other luggage, then I agree with you

but if it was riding alone in a baggage cart, I have to agree with posters no. 7 and 9.

[dflprincess]

18. Granted, my dad was not a fallen soldier,

and there was no veteran's flag on the shipping casket used to get him back to Minnesota for burial. But, when we changed planes in Chicago, the casket was put on the kind of cart used for baggage. We had enough time between our flights that my mom stood at the window to make sure they off loaded pop despite the well meant efforts of an airline representative to move her along. (This was back when the airlines had real service. Given the circumstances we were traveling under, a Northwest staff person met us in Chicago to make sure we got to the right gate for the next flight. She even stayed with us in a private waiting area until it was time to board. The rep also went to the trouble of checking that dad was on the next plane with us to reassure my mother.)

Using the baggage cart and baggage workers who are familiar with the airline's process was probably the most efficient way to make sure he was put on the right connecting flight. It would have upset everyone a lot more if we had arrived in Minneapolis and the body didn't.

It's been many, many years but I can't say it bothered me then or now that his casket was handled this way.

[rocktivity]

13. TORO TURD!

...Airport director David Damelio disputed Hoag's claims, saying a coffin wouldn't fit into a cart loaded with luggage.
But it would fit into a cart that WASN'T loaded with baggage, wouldn't it? And Hoag DOESN'T SAY that the baggage car was loaded was baggage, DID she?

A Pentagon spokeswoman...said Hoag's description doesn't correlate with military procedure.
Therefore--what? Therefore, Hoag is either lying or fantasizing? Thefore, it did not and could not have happened? Therefore, it wasn't actually a flag-draped coffin? What WAS it, then--part of a smuggling operation?

Geez, talk about saying nothing well!

:headbang:
rocknation

[msongs]

15. the army does not give a damn about dead soldiers except as PR nt

[buddysmellgood]

19. No disrespect here...unless someone took a picture of the casket or read the

names of the fallen on a broadcast. That we cannot stand for.