Was Soldier's Coffin On Cart With Luggage?

(AP)  The Army is investigating a woman's claim that a soldier's flag-draped casket was placed in an airport baggage cart with other luggage while being transferred between airline flights.

"The Army is always concerned with treating all of our fallen comrades' remains with the utmost dignity and respect," spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Arata said in a statement Thursday.

Cynthia Hoag, 56, a former Army reservist, said she was waiting for a flight at Rochester International Airport on Oct. 27 when she saw the coffin taken off a commercial flight along with passengers' luggage. A uniformed soldier accompanied the coffin as it was placed in a baggage car and transported to another flight, she said.

"At the very least, couldn't there have been a hearse to transport the fallen soldier?" Hoag asked in an essay in Tuesday's Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. "At the very least, couldn't there have been a group of soldiers to receive one of their own?

"It was a very sobering, sad experience for all of us," wrote Hoag, who said she witnessed the episode from a terminal window while waiting for a flight along with her sister-in-law and two friends. "Please don't let this happen again to any soldier. Let's not treat our fallen troops like baggage."

Her account prompted Monroe County's executive, Maggie Brooks, to write a letter of her own to the Pentagon, asking it to change the policy for transporting the coffins of war casualties.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Cynthia Smith, said Hoag's description doesn't correlate with military procedure.

Remains of soldiers killed in Iraq are taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, then usually flown to a soldier's home, Smith said. Military escorts accompany each flight and when a casket reaches the home area, it is met by an honor guard of two people and then transported to a funeral home, she said.

Airport director David Damelio disputed Hoag's claims, saying a coffin wouldn't fit into a cart loaded with luggage.

Calls to Hoag's home in Dansville, 50 miles south of Rochester, went unanswered Thursday.

[bushrocks1]

Would I send my son to this war? You might ask would I send him to World War II? Or Vietnam? Maybe you would distinguish those conflicts and whether you would send your son to fight in them. But that question is misdirected in a very important way: I can't command my son to go to war. He has to make that choice. So the better question would be: would I volunteer to fight in Iraq, WW II, Vietnam? Would I volunteer to fight in any war? Respond if drafted? I don%u2019t know. I'm not equivocating, only addressing that it is a hypothetical. To a hypothetical, I can answer, sure I'd fight. But I have nightmares of battle (from my past life as a Jacobite). So how do I feel toward those who do volunteer? Impressed and maturely knowing that many things go into their decision. But I do strongly believe that a country that can't find those men is doomed. The fact that we can find them is one reason why I say there is no failure in Iraq. Objectively, I also believe it for other reasons. An attempt to establish democracy in the Middle East is a bold, brilliant, noble effort, facing a high chance of failure. That's why I greatly respect and admire those who have made the attempt--the Bush administration. They have been resolute, something I have not seen in my lifetime. They may not succeed, for reasons outside their control or fault: traitors on the home front being a big one. Now those traitors have apparently occupied the high ground. Yet... we're still in Iraq. Why?...I'm waiting.

Not one of you has given any credit for the young uniformed Honor Guard that was present at the airport overseeing the transport of the coffin. They are trained to take care of these matters with the utmost respect. What Cynthia Hoag most likely saw was the coffin on a transport trailor that was being towed along side of another baggage cart, which from an angle could have appeared to part of the other trailer or appear to be a single baggage trailer. Someone posted the idea of a funeral hurse, this would be a secruity problem for airports as well as a danger to ground crews, and the funeral hurse driver as they are not trained or authorized to operate on the flightline with running aircraft

Agnim, I have read quite a few of your posts, I used to think highly of you as some of your posts were quite intellectual, however when you show disrespect toward the dead, that is where I draw the line, get a life........

[gramto7]

I'm quite sure the ramp workers would have sense enough to not try to put a coffin on a cart already 'full of luggage' as stated by Airport director David Damelio. They would have put the coffin on an empty cart and then used any addition room for luggage. I am not saying this is the right thing to do with the coffin, but it goes to show what an idiot Damelio is.

[firststate]

"Airport director David Damelio disputed Hoag's claims, saying a coffin wouldn't fit into a cart loaded with luggage." "American Ingenuity" is especially common among those who do physical labor for not much pay. The ramp workers are the ones who know what can fit, and where. If Mr. Damelio didn't ask these guys before he made that statement, he has a 50-50 chance of being wrong.

A former army reservist's comments about the actions she described are more likely the result paying more attention to the handling of a fellow soldier's remains. Her comment was more a plea for respect in the future than simply a complaint about the one act she witnessed. The remains of fallen military men and women are not just cargo or baggage. The national exposure of her comments may insure that the handling she described will not be repeated, even if it means a flight delay(s.)

Many of us disagree with almost everything about the war, but that's not the point here. We should appreciate and respect the warriors, even while hating the war. The men and women in Iraq are honoring the oath to which they swore upon entering the service. Their remains deserve the care that results from their well-earned respect.

[randalds]

To Bush and his buddies the deaths of our troops are just a side-effect of what they were trying to do, take over a major mid-east country. When people like Cheney look at this war our dead troops are just a cost of doing business that he's willing to pay, esp since very few of those of his and Bush's "class" are actually serving there. The war has been very successful for them as defense contractors have made billions and the oil companies that own the Republican party have never seen higher profits. The deaths of a few thousand of our young men and women, along with those of 100's of thousands of Iraqi civilians (who aren't god-fearing human beings anyway...right?) are a small price to pay to fatten their bank accounts.

[andrwsmom]

I agree that our soldiers be treated with respect above and beyond. What is bothering me is, it sounds to me that there have been some play on words within this article. Yes of course the coffin was removed from the cargo area of the plane, along with luggage...duh! Where else would you expect them to be? The article did not say that the coffin had luggage stacked on top of it and then transported.

[pudd54]

cart of hearse, I doubt he felt the difference, dead is dead

[tinker3478]

Anyone who doesn't believe this probably also doesn't believe that small bales of heroin were shipped from Viet Nam to the US in the abdominal cavities of the military dead. It doesn't make it any less true and you don't have to believe me: look at Stanley Karnow or Bernard Fall's books on Viet Nam.

[santo_marco]

Another Democratic plot to deface the name of our military through a pseudo-patriotic cry. So ignorant and so twisted, is she. As an active duty member of the armed forces and dealing with decedent affairs in the past...it sounds as though she did see a military coffin being accompanied by one uniformed member, which is standard. The only dramatically exaggerated detail was that the casket was being transported by a baggage cart. Ridiculous. It was probably transported by an airport cargo vehicle of some sort while within the confines of a non-military airport. Once the casket is in the possession of the deceased members's family, it will receieve a full honors and ceremony from an appinted color guard. People like this lady need to just go away.

[gramto7]

antoniorego wrote:
It will all come out that she was lying in order to get her essay published. A coffin will NOT fit on a luggage cart. She is one sick B-I-T-C-H.

If you will note, the article stated the casket was on a baggage cart. It did not say that the cart was full of of luggage. Only the dude trying to hide the fault of the airport stated that it wouldn't fit on a "cart full of luggage". Most of us have seen those carts. They would indeed hold a casket!