# Bush/Military Funerals

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-military-funerals/233007>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 7, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-military-funerals/233007 "2004-03-07T20:19:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kaneslatranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kaneslatranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaneslatranz)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-military-funerals/233007/1 "2004-03-07T20:19:29Z")

</div>

\*\*Is the fact that President Bush does not attend any  
funerals for our soldiers an extension of the Pentagon  
policy which forbids photographs of the caskets of any  
of our soldiers? Has any other president who has sent  
Americans to war adopted this polciy? \*\*

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KenGr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@KenGr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenGr)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-military-funerals/233007/2 "2004-03-07T20:37:21Z")

</div>

This has been kicked around already, I believe. Presidents almost never attend individual funerals for military personnel. They generally attend generalized memorial services, which Bush has and probably will in the future.

I found a summary on the History News Network which indicated that although Bush 41 staff said he had attended funerals, it couldn’t be confirmed. If he didn’t, you have to go back to Johnson to find a president attending an individual’s funeral.

> **[Have Presidents in the Past Attended the Funerals of Dead Soldiers? | ...](http://hnn.us/articles/1784.html)**
>
> \<p\>Recently, President Bush has been criticized for failing to attend the funerals 
> of the soldiers killed in Iraq. Maureen Dowd noted sarcastically in a recent 
> \<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/opinion/06DOWD.html"\>NYT column\</a\> 
> ...

(Disclaimer: I don’t know enough about HNN to know if they have a ideological slant but the overall content seems pretty balanced.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KenGr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@KenGr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenGr)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-military-funerals/233007/3 "2004-03-07T20:38:31Z")

</div>

Almost forgot. The no pictures rule was in place in the first Iraq war and was continued.