- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Pentagon has no plans to allow media access to a U.S. Air Force base receiving
the bodies of American soldiers killed in Iraq, a Defense Department spokeswoman
said on Friday.
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- The remains of 18 soldiers killed in the Iraq campaign
and six who died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan have arrived at Dover
Air Force Base in Delaware since Tuesday. Each time, a military chaplain
has uttered prayers and an honor guard has carried flag-draped aluminum
coffins to waiting vehicles.
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- In some past conflicts, news cameras and reporters were
allowed to record the transfer of soldiers' remains at the Dover base,
which houses the U.S. military's largest morgue.
-
- But a Defense Department spokeswoman said a policy in
place since the 1991 Gulf War shields the return of war dead from the media
spotlight and encourages family members not to attend. She said the policy
was adopted at the urging of soldiers' families.
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- "No major conflict dating back to the Gulf War has
permitted media coverage during a remains transfer," she said.
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- An exception was made in 1996 when the White House requested
media coverage after a plane carrying U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown
and 32 others crashed in Croatia, killing everyone on board. The Pentagon
has no plans to deviate from the policy during the war in Iraq.
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- Dover Air Force Base has been receiving military remains
since 1955, including military victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
It also handled remains of astronauts killed in the Feb. 1 crash of the
space shuttle Columbia.
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