Pentagon: No Coverage of Dover Ceremony for 30 Killed in Afghanistan

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Pentagon officials announced Monday they will not allow any media coverage of the arrival of the remains of 22 SEALs, three Air Force special operations ground controllers, and five Army helicopter crew members killed Saturday in Afghanistan.

The 30 service members were killed in an attack by a Taliban insurgent on a CH-47 Chinook on Saturday—the most deadly single attack since the beginning of the Afghanistan war in 2001. The military has not announced when the service members’ remains will be arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

After years of banning the media from covering the return ceremony for service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon began allowing coverage in 2009, providing that the next-of-kin authorized the photographers and television crew to be present.

But Pentagon spokeswoman Navy Capt. Jane Campbell said in a statement that the Pentagon would not allow the news media to cover the transfer ceremony for those killed in the Saturday attack because the remains technically are unidentified.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/08/08/pentagon-no-coverage-of-dover-ceremony-for-30-killed-in-afghanistan/?mod=WSJBlog&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fwashwire%2Ffeed+%28WSJ.com%3A+Washington+Wire%29

[bemildred]

1. Taliban Downing of NATO Chopper Not a ‘Watershed,’ Pentagon Says

The Aug. 6 downing of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization CH-47 Chinook helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 U.S. special operations troops, isn’t a “watershed” implying new Taliban momentum, a Pentagon spokesman said today.

“It’s a ‘combat’ incident,” said the spokesman, Marine Colonel David Lapan. “We take casualties. This one incident does not represent any kind of watershed or trend.”

“As we have said, the Taliban was going to come back hard. They were not going to take the losses they have suffered over the last year lightly. They are going to try and inflict casualties,” he said. “We still have the Taliban on the run.”

The U.S. special operations community will absorb the loss and knows how to “soldier on,” Lapan said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-08/taliban-downing-of-nato-helicopter-not-a-watershed-in-war-pentagon-says.html

[mopinko]

2. story on npr about the crash talked about the anonymity

that is the rule for seals and other special ops members. reported that no one wanted to talk about the incident, but that one thing that the community said, to a person, was that it is time to bring them all home.
+1.

[No Elephants]

3. Are their names on the flags draped over their coffins?

Anonymity is not the reason the Pentagon gave. Why is NPR making up stuff and speculating? That is not good journalism.

From the OP article:

“Because the remains are unidentified at this point, next-of-kin are not in a position to grant approval for media access to the dignified transfer,” Capt. Campbell said. “Therefore, in accordance with DoD policy, no media coverage of the arrival and dignified transfer is permitted. “