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[rabutcher (Robert)]

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 26, 2009 17:46:14 EST

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has lifted the ban on media coverage of the flag-draped caskets of war dead being returned to Dover Air Force Base, Del., reversing a policy in place since the 1991 Gulf War.

Coverage will now be decided on a case-by-case basis, with the families of the service members making the call on whether the return of their loved ones can be filmed or reported upon.

“After receiving input from a number of sources, including all the military services, and organizations representing military families, I have decided that the decision regarding media coverage of the dignified transfer process at Dover should be made by those most directly affected: on an individual basis by the families of the fallen,” Gates said at a Feb. 26 Pentagon news conference. “We ought not presume to make that decision in their place.”

Details on conditions of coverage and whether families would be provided transportation are being determined by a working group. Gates said he has asked the group to “quickly come up with a plan” to implement the new policy and explore “ways in which we might further assist the families of those who have made the supreme sacrifice for our country.”

The decision also has the backing of the nation’s top officer. “I’m very supportive of the change,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

The decision reverses a Pentagon policy put in place on Feb. 2, 1991. Gates launched a review after President Obama was asked at a Feb. 9 news conference whether he would consider reversing the ban in light of his administration’s commitment to “unprecedented transparency.”

Reactions were mixed among veterans and family groups. In a statement, Military Families United said it is “disappointed” in the decision, which it feels shows a “complete disregard for the will of America’s military families and their need for privacy during this solemn moment.”

Spokeswoman Meghan Tisinger later said “complete disregard” referred to the Pentagon’s failure to contact her group, which she described as the “leading military family organization,” for input.

In an interview on BBC Radio following Gates’ announcement, M.J. Kesterson, whose son, Army Warrant Officer Erik Kesterson, was killed in Iraq in November 2003, complained that what she described as the largely anti-war U.S. media would exploit the return of war dead as if they were “on parade.”

The group VoteVets.org, on the other hand, said it is “fully supportive” of the policy change.

“For people to see the sacrifice their soldiers make and fully honor it, this helps show the American public what the sacrifice is about — it’s what we consider fully honoring their sacrifice,” said the group’s chairman, Jon Soltz, a former Army captain and veteran of the Kosovo campaign and Iraq war.

Stoltz also said there is a constitutionality issue involved. “Despite what other people in other groups like to say, when men and women raise their right hand for the armed forces of the United States, they don’t do it to a political party. And they don’t do it for a president. They do it for the Constitution.”

Freedom of the press, he noted, is an amendment to that document. “We feel Secretary Gates handled this perfectly,” Soltz said.

In reaching his decision, Gates said he sought out the views of each service’s senior leadership and had aides in his personnel and readiness division canvass family groups outside the Pentagon. The resulting report supported what he had already decided, he said.

“I would say that the reaction we got from the organizations associated with the families strongly reinforced the decision of where I was headed,” he said.

He was heavily influenced, he said, by the Army’s stance.

“I got a very compelling … memorandum from the Army in favor of this change of policy,” Gates said. “And since that involves the largest number of our fallen, that, obviously, had an impact on me.”

Gates acknowledged, however, that “a division” on the subject still exists inside the Pentagon.

But, he added, “I’m not questioning the motives of those who opposed a change in policy. They were doing what they thought best served the families of our fallen.”

Gates said he had reviewed the policy a year ago, when he still served the Bush administration. But he said his review was a personal matter and that he had had no contact with the White House on the issue. The feedback he received from within the Pentagon, he said, was to keep the ban in place.

“I accepted that at the time,” Gates said, adding that he “reached out more broadly” in his more recent review.

“I must say I was never comfortable with [the ban]. … I was much happier with the answer I got this year.”

[krnl]

Give the media any chance to paint a picture the way they want to and they'll do it. That's the main reason I was and still am against it. We'll see how it turns out, I guess...