Public access for hero arrival...

I am not going to post the video or photos of the event at Dover, AFB. I do not like the reversal of the policy banning the media at the arrival of fallen heroes being returned to the homeland. However, I do respect the wishes of the family that approved the media access.

My two cents — changing this policy is a good idea, if only because it gives the public (through the lens of an eager media) to see the seriousness with which the military honors it’s fallen heroes. The Washington Post did an excellent job capturing the scene in it’s coverage today.

There are people on all sides with differing views, like the one above of Pete Hegseth (the chairman of Vets for Freedom). I don't agree with that idea for the simple fact that I do not believe the media is there to honor. My evidence, why does the media not cover the hundreds of returning heroes... why is the media thin at the following events:




Yet they are furious at not being allowed to photograph coffins? My reply is not they want to honor the heroes, they want political statements. In addition I cannot feel that the piece mentioned in the WaPo is all that respectful when they say things like:

Old Guard members also are assigned the funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. To make it into the Old Guard, they've already survived a sort of basic training in which, instead of climbing walls and crawling under barbed wire, they learn to stand as still as a marble column and as stolidly as a beefeater.

They are soldiers first and did not complete "a sort of basic training," they completed the same training to serve honorably in the United States Army as all the other men and women.

When I see the same amount of coverage done for every single homecoming, causality or not, then I will believe the media has honor and best interest in mind.