I’ve been seeing online news articles like this one about the Charleston firefighter tragedy. It strikes me as a bit “off” that the caskets of these firefighters, public servants presumably on the payroll of a South Carolina municipality, protecting South Carolina citizens and property, were draped with US flags. I thought this was mainly a practice for federal politicians and soldiers. Why not South Carolina flags for South Carolina firefighters, I wonder? Has it always been this way?
Of course we all know that beginning from the morning of 9/12/2001, firefighters and policemen from sea to shining sea were treated to the greatest patriotic fellating seen in America since the moon landings, and it shows no sign of abating. So what I’m specifically wondering is whether this firefighter-cum-soldier thing is a recent invention of the 9/11 bandwagon, or whether it’s just my imagination.
In my personal feeling, it seems like the federal government is capitalizing on the valor of state and municipal servants to build a “Brand America” whose halo effect functions as a “moral-laundering” service for the use of federal force and a justification for the expansion of federal authority. Of course this is already occurring with overseas force… if you criticize the war on Iraq, you’re shitting on the graves of New York firefighters… but I can’t help feeling like it’s also paving the way for greater government monopoly on domestic force and authority.
A close family friend, a firefighter, was killed in 1978, and I attended his funeral in Arlington, Virginia. His coffin was draped with the American flag.
I have seen several police officer line-of-duty funerals prior to 9/11/01 as an honor guard for the K of C, and those, without exception, also used the American flag.
So based on my admittedly anecdotal evidence, I would say the practice was known and used prior to 9/11. If you believe that the 1978 funeral is a instance of the federal government capitalizing on the valor of state and municipal servants to build a “Brand America,” I think you ought to write to that rat bastard Jimmy Carter and give him a piece of your mind.
That’s not too terribly surprising. I guess many police officers are ex-military types, and they’re all going to have flags, so the non-ex-military police officers are going to want them too, and of course we can’t treat the police half of the first-responder team as national heroes without also elevating firemen to national heroes. That sorta makes sense.
But I’ve been reading the newspaper and internets for quite a long time, and it doesn’t seem to me that the flag-draped caskets of local firemen weren’t routinely front-page news until 9/11, and they’re mentioned disturbingly often in the same breath as soldiers in Iraq.
Of course it was frontpage news before. It just doesn’t happen very often. Nine firefighters dying is going to be frontpage news. 6 died in 1999 in Worchester Mass. It was frontpage news. Here is Ted Kennedy’s speech at the memorial service. They gave their lives in service to their community. What is so hard to understand?
They gave their lives in service to their community, yet increasingly they are being treated as national heroes with federal honors, plastered on the front of every major news outlet. Yet journalists can’t photograph the flag-draped coffins of soldiers returning from Iraq, who presumably are equally heroic and honorable. I have no beef with honoring those who make great sacrifice, but the selective use of symbolism makes me ask, what’s really going on here?
It seems to me you are brushing aside the replies that take issue with your central thesis: firefighters and police officers have ALWAYS been treated in this way, with their line-of-duty coffins ALWAYS memorialized with the American flag. (By “always,” I mean the past fifty years or so, sufficient time to rebut the inference that this is an insidious propaganda practice related to the Iraq War).
On the morning of September 11th, 2001 I was watching the news just like everyone else (I was doing other things that everyone else wasn’t doing but we won’t go into that here). I remember watching one particular channel, I think it was the Today Show and they had the first interviews of people that had escaped from the towers. I remember one woman saying that as she was going down the stairs firemen were going up. I can not describe the feeling I got it the pit of my stomach at that moment. I should have know they were going into the building but up until that moment I didn’t even think about it. You have a problem understanding why they should be honored? A flag on the coffin has been a traditional way of showing someones service to the country, both through service in the military and local uniformed service to ones local community. The flag is a powerful symbol in this country. Look at any firetruck, I’m sure you will find a flag sticker. Look at their uniforms, there is probably a flag on their shoulder. If you don’t like that, then you are entitled to your opinion. Doesn’t make it less real.
Journalist however can photograph flag draped coffins during the funerals and memorial services. The military does not allow photographs of the coffins taken when they are basically cargo in an airplane. This is out of respect to the families. They try to have as much respect as possible for the remains but it basically a cargo box in the cargo compartment of a transport plane. I have seen plenty of flag draped coffins of recent combat deaths in my local newspaper. Does it remind us less of the price of war just because it is being carried out of a church instead of unloaded from a plane? Is it really that important for someone to get a photo of the coffins being unloaded onto the tarmac?
When I was in boot camp, I belonged to a company that would from time to time march in various community parades in the Wisconsin-Illinois area. We would carry the state flags in formation, preceded by an honor guard carrying the American flag and the Navy flag.
Whenever we passed either a cop or a uniformed firefighter working the parade, they would snap to attention and salute, just the same as we would when we would pass the flag, or it would pass us.
So whatever military courtesies and customs they observe, they do so consistently.
Maybe that’s what they say, but if nobody can tell which casket is which, and they’re draped in carefully-wrapped flags even on the plane, based on those few photos that have been smuggled out, so it’s not a question of showing coffins stacked hither and yon in a disrespectful fashion, exactly what difference does it make to the families? I could see it if there was some jarring and disrespectful-appearing aspect to the transport, but from all indications that’s not the case.
In and of itself, no. But in a “this is our government, so unless in a particular instance there’s a damned good reason to the contrary, its workings should be open to all” sense, yes.
That makes no sense. There is nothing secret about it. The “workings” are free and open to all. If a journalist wants to witness the way bodies are transported I’m sure there would be no problem. The “workings” of the government are open in this case, they just don’t want someone taking photos.
Ask them. It’s not your call. If it was me (and who knows, it might be. We are scheduled to go in a couple of years) I don’t want the photos taken.
What a crock. Those families aren’t going to know which of those coffins is their loved one. The reason that they aren’t allowing photographs is to minimize the perception of the casualties. If you see one coffin being buried, it’s one perception. If you see 100 inside a plane, it’s quite another.
First of all, the photographs that were ultimately published were not smuggled out - they were released after a hearing on the applicability of the Freedom of Information Act to them. Quite a different matter.
Secondly, the military here is very concerned with the rights of the dead soldier’s family members in determining how the image of their coffin will be used. In this Pulitzer Prize winning series, Jim Sheeler and photographer Todd Heisler of the Rocky Mountain News were granted extraordinary access to casulty assistance calls officers, especially Marine Corps Major Steve Beck. They were able to chronicle every aspect of the casualty notification process, including how caskets are handled. They photographed many of them. But they were only permitted to do so with the explicit permission of the family.
Viet Nam has been over for quite a while. There are no planes with 100 coffins in it. The causualty numbers are not that high. Not saying that it couldn’t happen in the future but it is not happening now. They don’t wait a while for them to stack up so they can have a full plane load.
And your post goes to prove that there is no actual *journalistic * reason for such photographs.
I think the OP’s original question is a valid one. I have noticed that there is more firefighter worship going on than prior to 9/11. The heroism displayed by firefighters then has a lot to do with this, but also, I think people felt very vulnerable after 9/11, and firefighters seemed to be a comfortable lot to glom onto under the circumstances.
As far as them having American flags draped over their caskets, well, meh. I think it’s fine if they do or don’t.
Showing dead soldier-filled flag-draped coffins being transported back to the US might offend a few families, but having our government forbid it is offensive to every last one of us, IMHO.
I have to tell you I think you are way off base. Firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty deserve all the respect and honor that we as citizens, and as all local, state and federal governments can offer. My brother is a captain with the county fire department and what he does for a living is risk his life for civilians just like you and I. Some of the stories he has shared with me literally make me cry they are so fraught with human suffering and the firefighters willingness to risk their lives for anyone. They don’t do a pre saving judgment. Hey Bob ! Don’t waste your time ! It’s another one of those damn crackheads ! Maybe I’m too close to make a fair call but I think anyone who knows would agree they do some scary shit every day. Things that I just don’t think most people understand. I really don’t think honoring the fallen is a ploy to do anything but honor the fallen.
I beg to differ. It’s the journalists’ jobs to bring us the news of the world as unvarnished and completely as possible. If there’s a plane full of coffins, then the public has the right to see those coffins and contemplate whether the policies that filled them are sound or unsound. When you prevent people from seeing the whole story and making these judgments, that’s censorship. And when you hide this heavy handed fascism under the fig leaf of “respect” for the people you sent into the shooting gallery, it’s hypocritical.
Not to quibble about the numbers. I have no idea if a plane holds 100 or 50 or whatever. But there are and continue to be cargo planes well filled with coffins.
Firefighters are sort of the modern day noble knights. There really isn’t anyone who dislikes firefighters. Many people have a beef with cops because cops arrest them and give them tickets, but firefighters pull you out of a burning building, something that is practically universally seen to be a good thing. In a world where we are assaulted with the notion that we need to understand the moral ambiguity in every situation, it’s nice to have the idea of a hero that is not morally ambiguous.
Jounalist can and do report on casualties. They report how many, when they were killed. If they put a little effort in they can find out how they were killed, talk to their buddies, probably find out which body parts were blown off. They can go to the funerals or memorial services. They can and do take pictures of the coffins as they are brought to and from the church or funeral parlor. No one is stopping them from publishing the actual stories. The whole story is available and widely reported for each and every casualty. As Mr Moto’s link proves the entire process of transporting the bodies is an open book. The military is controlling what photographs can and cannot be taken on military instillations. That’s fascism? Not just regular fascism but heavy handed fascism? Give me a fucking break.