Marine L/Cpl Andrew Patten, 19 yrs old, Arrives Home From Iraq.....

[leftchick]

In a flag drapped coffin... :cry:



Alan Patten (C) and his fiancee Diane Kerr pick up the remains of Alan's nineteen-year-old son US Marine Lt. Cpl Andrew Patten, who was killed in Fallujah, at O'Hare airport. Iraqis vote this week in a watershed election for a parliament to steer the war-torn country towards full sovereignty nearly three years after the 2003 US-led invasion(AFP/Getty Images/Scott Olson)

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/iraq/082701iraqplane/im:/051211/photos_wl_me_afp/051210101024_v377lfoi_photo3

Edit: link for rating the photo...

[knitter4democracy]

1. How awful.

I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be to have to meet your son's coffin at the airport. :(

[Wickerman]

3. in the shipping warehouse

being hauled by a forklift like baggage. So wrong.

[leftchick]

8. that is what got to me as well

a fucking forklift like so much baggage. :cry:

[knitter4democracy]

13. You're right.

It's bad enough that it's not in the main airport, but with a forklift and no honor guard anywhere around? So sad.

[benburch]

27. Well, there is really no other way to do it at Ohare...

There having been a foot of snow.

At least there is an honor guard.

[leanin_green]

59. If this were done with the honor they used to. . .

there would have been one of his commrades in arms accompanying the casket, the Marine Corps would have been in contact with the family to make arrangements at the airport for arrival, to load the casket immediately in an honorable military fashion from the plane to a waiting hearse, maintaining full military decorum.

It's just a sign to me that the military is beginning to feel somewhat dishonorable. These kinds of images are just signs of what is creeping in within the ranks. It goes unseen and undetected and usually surfaces in practices like this.

[MADem]

66. The challenge is getting the hearse on the tarmac

Nowadays, it is almost impossible. I think, though, that they could have removed the casket from the forklift before the family saw it, and carried the casket through the warehouse to the hearse, and if that were not practicable due to obstructions or what not, they could have used the mortician's guerney and had the honor guard wheel it to the vehicle.

This is not the worst treatment I have seen though. At least there was military representation present.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Do you think the service has been privatized?

Did they find it cheaper to use the forklift, instead of other servicemen?

[Bunny]

2. Something about looking at that father, seeing his son's casket

on a forklift, just breaks my heart. :cry:

[Toots]

36. Do you think he still backs Bush* and this phony war?

If he does then I hope he is able to live with himself in the next few years when it is all said and done...

[GCP]

51. How do you know he backed Bush and the war

Both my sons were Marines and one of them was in the Afghani campaign as well as the Iraq campaign. He was dead against the whole Iraq War as were we, his parents.

[RazzleDazzle]

61. Yeah, and "19" gets me too

I hardly remember being 19 -- it went by so fast. Swoosh, and it was gone. Ya know? How can we have a world where 19 year olds die -- in war? Insane, inhumane, wrong. So wrong.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. Yes, as a former college professor, I know exactly how young 19 is

I never thought much about it during the Vietnam War, but one day, during my second year of teaching (1983), a student came in with candy for everyone in celebration of his 19th birthday. He was very young looking, and all of a sudden it struck me that he was the same age as the average soldier in Vietnam.

[Christa]

4. Heartbreaking

:cry:
I can only hope Bush can experience the same pain and heartache one day

[TheDebbieDee]

15. I agree......The only way he could know how it feels

is to send one of his own special and privileged bimbo daughters to Iraq to die for his lies!

[qanda]

5. What in the world????

Why was that casket on a forklift?

[shaniqua6392]

6. Couldn't they find some people to carry that casket?

And they say they support the troops. This dead soldier is being supported by a forklift at a shipping depot at the airport. God they make me sick.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. They're too busy trying to find new recruits

The Army just offered $2500 for each one you bring in.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Sad. Stark. All Americans should see this picture - The reality of war.

We'll never see this on the news networks.

[genie_weenie]

9. sigh

My words would be worthless... This is how BushCo want all fallen troops treated. Out of sight, out of mind... Pay more attention to who Paris Hilton is sluting around with, it is more important...

More Dead Heros as Cargo if you can stomach it...
http://www.10news.com/news/5504608/detail.html

[EFerrari]

35. Welcome to DU, genie

:hi:

[genie_weenie]

38. Hey Thanks!

That's my first welcome!

[leftchick]

40. holy shit! that deserves a thread of its own!

I will start one and give you credit.

Welcome to DU genie-weenie!

:hi:

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. If this image is not the straw that breaks the camel's back

then I give up on this fucked up country.

[Deja Q]

16. I'd rather die by the bomb of a terrorist than defend this country.

The actions of late by our government, which are probably just "cost reduction measures" in their eyes, are the most depraved yet. Never mind how nixing vet benefits was a big enough insult...

It's like they DON'T want people to enlist... And you bet draft dodging will be the latest craze once a draft is imposed.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

12. disturbing.

n/t

[Deja Q]

14. At least they bought a flag?!

First that article on caskets coming back in commercial airliner as if it's all somebody's luggage, and now this.

I bet the US won't pay for burial services either.

So much for defending one's country.

Expect enlistment rates to fall to very low levels where only the truly cretinous would enlist. So much the better, they say Americans are stupid...

[MADem]

67. The flag accompanies the remains

It is in a sack attached to the shipping container. You take it out and secure it with a bungee cord type thing.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Not to quibble, but it should be L/Cpl or Lance Corporal.

I used to be one of those. I totally agree with the substance of your post.

[leftchick]

18. I just copied what was in the caption.

I have no clue myself what is correct. Should I change it out of respect?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. No big deal, but you might as well be accurate.

I see that you have changed it. L/Cpl's are enlisted men/women. Lt.(Lieutenant) Cpl.(Corporal) doesn't exist. I guess, for me, as an ex enlisted man (aka: peasant, grunt, peon, enlisted scum) who had to work for a living, I dislike any association with officers (aka: assholes).

[awoke_in_2003]

19. One good thing about that picture

at least they sent a senior NCO to meet the family. Can't count the rockers, but he has got at least two (Gunnery SGT)

[lonestarnot]

20. WTF... warehoused! Warehouse of the Dead. Forklifted! What disrespectful

shit is this! Unfuckingbelievable! But it is believable because it is reality.

[TheCowsCameHome]

21. How can we get this photo out to where the world can see it?

It is gut-wrenching. Imagine what his Dad must be feeling. His boy is dead.

And the surroundings - brought home from war a pallet in a warehouse like a piece of freight...........

Jesus, I am so upset and angry after seeing this.

[Deja Q]

22. Post it in a blog, e-mail it to ALL your friends and family, your website.

And make sure the background story is copied within the bounds of legality.

[MADem]

68. If you aren't making money, you can "fair use" the entire thing n/t

[leftchick]

24. rate it up on yahoo as well

if it makes 'most viewed' there is a greater chance of getting it into a paper.

[TheCowsCameHome]

I'm afraid I don't know how to do that. Could you explain how it's done?

Thanks.

[leftchick]

42. clink on the link I posted to Yahoo

find the photo, you may have to cclick through a few, the rate a 5 on the 1 through 5 star rating below the caption. You have to be registered with yahoo and the prompt will come up when you rate it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

26. Dupe, sorry.

[Botany]

23. Blessings and prayers on his soul and for his family & friends

US Marine Lance Cpl Andrew :patriot:
:cry:


If that was my son I would put the coffin bed of pick up and drive it to the
White House and roll it to the front gate.

When is this insanity going to stop?

Alan Patten:
If I knew words I would say them.
If I knew what to do I would do it.
If there was a place I could go to help you
I would go there.
If I just knew what to do.

[soup]

28. and that's not all

Funeral Protest
Naytonie Williams

It’s a demonstration causing quite the controversy but members of Westboro Baptist Church say they don't expect to be appreciated as they plan on protesting Monday’s funeral services for Lance Corporal Andrew Patten.

The Kansas based church started demonstrating regularly this summer, and say military deaths in Iraq are a punishment from God. They also believe the country's major disasters, homeland attacks, and acceptance of homosexuality are all apart of God's wrath. But the protests have nothing to do with the sexuality of the fallen marine.

Deputy Chief Greg Lindmark from the Rockford Police Department says, "They’ll be plans in place regardless whether they come or not were preparing not only for the possibility of protestors but also for a large volume of traffic, a large volume of pedestrian traffic."
http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/2061316.html



What a 'homecoming'.

Rest in peace, Marine. I'm so sorry.

[Bunny]

29. There's a special place in hell, just waiting for those assholes.

:grr:

[soup]

31. I truly do not understand the reasoning.

Do they think that the mourners are going to see them and - in a (dim) lightbulb moment - stop in their tracks and go join them?

Are they waiting for the almost inevitable violence - so they have a lawsuit?

I just do not get it.

--

Apologies to the OP. I'm sorry for swaying off topic. Wanted to know more about this young man, and found the article on the planned protest by the hate-filled idiots.

[lebkuchen]

30. What next? Pick-up at Baggage Terminal #13?

[Blue_Tires]

33. no, the next part will be picking up the corpse C.O.D.

nt

[neverforget]

34. How dare these motherfuckers don't treat those that have given

their life in our name!! How fucking dare they! This Marine and every other soldier, sailor and airman deserve to come home with the dignity and honor of those that have fallen in the name of this country. It's the least they deserve! Treating fallen Marines as freight is fucking sick. If I were the parent of this man, I would be raising holy hell in the media, my congressperson and my Senator. I wouldn't rest until this wrong has seen the light of day and the United States Government shamed for this indignity.:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[EFerrari]

37. I may be wrong but flipping through that slideshow,

I thought I saw Chalabi's face on a big billboard?

[leftchick]

39. yes you did

He wants to be Iraq's next PM aka: American strongman/dictator.

[EFerrari]

44. The guy who said it didn't matter if we were lied into war. n/t

[leftchick]

52. yep, he calls the neo freaks...

"heroes in error" :puke:

[tamtam]

41. Oh gawd

Is that a warehouse and a forklift? Fucking sick! 19 yrs old just a kid :mad: I'm sorry but the kid is not baggage. Nominated

[FreedomAngel82]

43. So sad

He's so young. My gosh. :cry:

[Historic NY]

45. Doesn't anyone feel "RAGE".............

I do, this is just plain not fucking right. I don't care whether you support the war or not. This is not right, we always had some decorum and some dignity in handling those that have fallen.

We told we can't see our dead coming home because it might hurt the war effort ala Vietnam. Thats what this administration told us. I'd like to go down to DC and slap the living shit out of them especially that old goat a--hole Rummy. This should not be allowed period. Where's the respect & dignity. Who the fuck is running this military & government that would allow this to happen. Some way to support the families, who are left with the burden. Some way to honor those that gave their all.

[EFerrari]

54. I got so angry my *teeth* hurt from wanting to BITE.

Rumskull fails the Dover test. If he can't bear to see the consequences he should, at minimum, resign.

[Turn CO Blue]

46. Since you've posted this twice...

I want you to explain to me how they are supposed to ship the body? I work for an airline, and I truly resent your implication that a commercial airliner wouldn't do as good a job or BETTER then the stupid military in shipping a body.

How were they supposed to ship the body all that way? In a military Jeep? In the back of a long-haul truck? In a hearse? On a train next to other passengers?

What the hell do you expect?

Thousands of ordinary people and funeral homes ship bodies on "commercial airlines" in this country every month. IT IS NOT UNSUAL AND IT IS NOT DISRESPECTFUL!

I want you to post a ten-point practical way to move a body several thousand miles that reaches your approval, follows all the regulations (for human remains, fluids and containers) and costs less than $2000. Get to it.

tcb
---
Proud Liberal and PROUD AIRLINE EMPLOYEE!

[kentuck]

47. Could they swap the forklift for a local honor guard ?

Would that be too much to ask? Or are they too busy?

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. there is one, notice the Gunny in the rear

he is not wearing dress blues though, but there is a gunny... I guess the rest of the guard is OFF frame

[MADem]

69. The USMC recently changed the rules, and the CACOs are NOT happy about it

They don't want them wearing the blues because they (meaning the brass in DC) think it is "more upsetting" to the family when they do a notification.

It could well be that there are only three guys there in that warehouse. The CACO (Casualty Assistant Calls Officer) and his assistant, and the escort officer who accompanied the remains home.

If they were unable to field an honor guard, I think a better way to have done this would have been, as I noted upthread, to use the mortician's guerney and have the funeral director and the USMC personnel wheel the casket to the hearse.

[leftchick]

53. I believe the parents are the ones who brought up the disrespect and

Lack of proper protocol. And I can not help but wonder how Pat Tillman's body came back to his home town. :eyes:

[tamtam]

62. I tell you how they ship him

They ship him back in a damn C130. This young man is not an ordinary person, he gave his life and died in a war. No one is knocking the airlines or CIVILIANS that have to ship their loved ones in cargo using an CIVILIAN airline.

They can ship this poor kid back on a MILITARY plane since he did give his life to the military and all. IMO, it's very disrespectful to ship a troop who has fallen from the result of a war back home using a CIVILIAN airline. He was not a civilian he was in the military and the military should take the necessary measures to honour him; from the moment he falls to the last moment of burial. I don't think that is too much to ask from the support the troops crowd.

[MADem]

70. It simply is not practicable

Military aircraft burn a lot of fuel, which costs money, and there are a limited number of them. What would end up happening is that remains would be delayed for days if not weeks, sitting in warehouses and being shipped hither and yon, awaiting available aircraft.

The odds are way better than even that the poor kid went over to Iraq on a commercial, chartered aircraft--not a military one. It ain't our grandpa's military, nowadays.

[Rex]

49. Is this meant to scare the enemy?

Show them how little we care about our soldiers? I saw a DISGUSTING picture yesterday of a marine being shipped home in a freight box on a commercial plane. Sick, grotesque, malignant, cancerous is the BFEE. The People don't exist anymore, just numbers in freighting boxes.

[alfredo]

50. I sent the story about the Pentagon sending our departed

soldiers as baggage with no flag, no honor guard to a veteran friend. (A Vietnam vet- an intelligence agent attached to the Rangers)

On return he was on volunteer duty checking returning casualties for unexploded ammo and contraband. They didn't even bother to put them in caskets, they were left in the body bags. Many were sent back straight from the battlefield without being cleaned up or anything. They were just tagged and bagged. He could only handle it for a short time, deciding not to volunteer for that duty again.

[leftchick]

55. in a way I can understand that happening....

In no way is it excusable but at the height of the Vietnam war with hundreds dead a month I can see how that could happen. Now with usually less than a hundred dead a month I can not understand why each body is not given the time, reverence and respect it deserves.

[Historic NY]

57. Its unexcusable, the undertaker & military escort

should arrange to make sure the body is handled properly. We had a young fellow killed here and the local funeral home handled everything.......from pickup to interrment, no charge. There was a connection to the family but it was sold yrs back to one of those big companies. They did the right thing. I don't get it, the body is supposed to be sent with escort, to make sure the right things are done.

[alfredo]

60. In either case, it is not the kind of job a young man or woman

would want.

You were right about Vietnam. I can imagine how it was to open up the body bags and never knowing what you will find. It would take a very strong stomach to do that job.

[Historic NY]

64. My cousins husband was one of the

Chief USAF NCO's that ran the mortuary at Dover. He retired after the war began after 24yrs of service. He was glad to get out after processing the Pentagon bodies from 9/11. He just didn't want to do it any more. Now works at a children's hospital in administration.

[TimeChaser]

56. Holy fucking shit... *I'm* 19

My friends are 19, my boyfriend will be 19 in less than a month...

:cry: :scared: :cry:

[leftchick]

58. IT is shocking isn't it?

not old enough to drink anywhere in the US but old enough to hold a gun and die for bush*s war for oil.

:(

[0007]

63. Pile 'em high!

Grass Bush

Pile the bodies high in Austerlitz and Waterloo Iraq
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; bush; I cover all.

And pile them high in Gettyburg Baghdad
And pile them high in Ypres and Vedum Mossoul and Al Fallaujah

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?

I am the grass bush.
Let me work.

Carl Sandburg

Bring the troops home alive not in pine boxes