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Tonight on You Served Radio we will be talking with NY National Guard LT. Amy Bonanno. Amy just returned from a one year tour in Afghanistan as part of Task Force Phoenix. She was the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the the southern Afghan region, based out of the volatile Kandahar region. We will be talking about her tour as a PAO, some of the things that happened then, like the prison break, Focused District Development Teams, and the famed Nick Meo affair. Also keeping in line with our theme of talking about the challenges of women serving in the military we will probably chat about what challenges and unique issues she saw versus her male counterparts.
We’ll also be talking with Dana Canedy, author of “A Journal For Jordan”. The book is based off the private journal of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King. In the book, 1SG King gives timeless advice from a father to his son in the form of a regular journal. When 1SG King was killed in Iraq, Dana published his journal for all generations to read.
During last week’s You Served Radio show, we ran a little over our 2 hour time window because CJ and I had a civil but not necessarily agreeing discussion about the possibility of allowing photos of coffins returning home. There has been quite a bit of discussion about this topic over the last few weeks and quite a bit of disagreement going on. You can read some disagreement going on and a lot of mixed feelings over the topic. You can read some of that here, www.military.com/news/article/quarrel-stirs-on-flagdrapped-coffins.html.
I support the media having access, however with parameters and rules. First let me address why, which is because I think the American people need to see the honors that are bestowed on our fallen by all people.
Did you know that as per the embed rules for embedded reporters, they are allowed to video and photograph a soldier dying on the battlefield but are not supposed to video or photograph a “Ramp Ceremony”. A “Ramp Ceremony” is the ceremony that happens when a fallen soldier of any ally is moved onto the plane for their final flight home out of the combat theatre. When I was at Baghram Air Base a few times while going out on leave or coming home, there were several Ramp Ceremonies that occurred. When they happen (regardless of the time of day) the loudspeakers announce it and call everyone out to the main road (Disney Way) to render honors as soldiers are taken to the flight line.
ANY SOLDIER; US, British, German, Canadian, Dutch, it does not matter what nationality are rendered these honors. It is truly an emotional and awesome sight. This is what people need to see. This is what Americans need to see so it not just another headline like this “Afghan bomb kills 4 US troops”.
By showing not only the Ramp Ceremony in country but also at home, the American people will see that there are names, faces, families, and many other people impacted by every single soldier lost. If you have seen the HBO Movie “Taking Chance” (www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/) that I have talked about on this blog several times, then you will know what I mean. That movie premiered last Saturday and I wanted to wait until that movie was out before posting this entry. If you watched that movie and you have a beating heart, then there is no way you didn’t cry some tears. There is no way you did not get a strong lump in your throat. There is no way you didn’t feel very proud of your military and country after the movie was over. Kevin Bacon did a awesome job representing LTC Strobl and the movie got the message out that I think was intended.
In “Taking Chance” you see how not only the people working on Dover AFB show honors but how people all across America showed honors to PFC Chance’s coffin. Do you think it was the first time those people knew that there was a war going on, or maybe that we lost a US service-member in war? No Way! But it was probably the first time for many to be part of the honors by personally witnessing it.
In December of 2004 I had the painstaking tasks of bringing home one of my soldiers, SGT David Roustum, for one final trip home. Dave was killed on November 20th, 2004 in Iraq and the early days of December his body finally came home. As we stood on the tarmac of the Buffalo Airport with full military honors and the family standing by to receive their loved one home, the windows of the terminal was packed with people. The scene in Taking Chance where the people leaving the plane stop and watch the casket leave the plane reminded me of this moment back in 2004. It brought back a lot of painful, but proud memories. I remember standing in my Class-A uniform on the tarmac on that cold day and looking out of the corner of my eye up to the windows of the terminal and seeing hundreds of people who stopped what they were doing, who didn’t worry about making their flight or leaving the terminal to be with family. They forgot what they were doing or where they had to be.
They saw the father fall on the end of the flag-covered casket as it came down the conveyor. They saw brave and strong warriors weep for their brother. They saw family with stone faces covered in tears. They were in awe, they were in pause for a brief moment to not only pay honors themselves, but to witness how the military pays honors to its own. I am sure those people have never forgotten that day in the airport, at least I hope they never do.
All the American people need to see that. They need to see how those that work on Dover line up every time a hearse leaves the base and render honors. The American people need to see how proud many of us are of our fallen, regardless of branch, regardless if we knew them or not.
I don’t think that journalists should be allowed to video or take pictures of a soldier bleeding out on the battlefield, but they should be allowed to video and take pictures of the honors we present to our warriors who have sacrificed all.
You can view a Canadian Ramp ceremony below.
Now to address some of the rules and policies that I think should be followed are the following (I am sure there are more that apply, but these are what initially stand out to me):
1. No cameras mounted in C17s to take impersonal pictures of a plane full of coffins.
This serves no purpose and in my opinion it does not demonstrate anything or hold any journalistic value.
2. The family must approve ahead of time for the media to take pictures or video. They must also say when it must stop (i.e. From plane to Mortuary affairs, or until it leave base or all the way to the family, or all the way until it is put in the ground, etc.)
3.The family can change their mind at any time and when they do the journalist must back off and are not allow to spout 1st Amendment violation accusations.
4. If at anytime a news organization violates these rules or it is determined later that they were disrespectful in their presentation, they would be barred from every covering these events in the future.
The above post was written over the weekend, and was going to post this week. However it looks like the Pentagon it changing its policy as of today (02/26/09) so I am amending this post and adding the link below. I am wondering if they are tapping into my blog site and getting ideas from the Bouhammer, or maybe listening to You Served Radio.
Another cousin from down-under gets it. Check out www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=875347 to see what I mean. I guess this guys worked on a think tank study group for Gen Petreus, which would explain his excellent insight to the situation there.
I am waiting for my royalty check for the “Afghanistan is not Iraq” comment.
You always hear about the elusive fobbit (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fobbit) and some soldiers who maybe haven’t deployed yet (not that there are many left) may want to know how they can be ready to identify and avoid the elusive fobbit. The purpose of this post is to show you an indicator that a fobbit may be near you. If they are walking around with a weapon like this, then be sure and stay away.
CJ and I interviewed the gentlemen who made this movie last week on You Served radio. This looks to be a truly phenomenal film. Watch the trailer below and you will see what I mean. In fact if you watch this and don’t end up with a lump in your throat or a tear in your eye, then you need to take your pulse…becuase you don’t have a heart.
My good friend, Old Blue is very smart in the ways of COIN* and Afghanistan in general. He is considered to be the ETT that I handed the blogging baton off to before he handed if off to Vampire6 of Afghanistanshrugged.com. Anyway, Old Blue is a proud and active member of the Pitchfork Brigade and was instrumental in taking down Nick Meo when he wrote hateful, lying and unprofessional things last year.
Then another blogger wrote about the incident and Old Blue responded to the blog post, which in turn RYP responded to Old Blue. I know from phone calls with Old Blue that RYP has threatened Old Blue with lawsuits, etc. for what Old Blue wrote on his personal blog. Trust me Old Blue does not scare easy, especially from a piece of…work like RYP.
The threats gave Old Blue a new motivation to take this to the next level and spend a lot more time and energy doing investigative work and researching before writing his newest post. This posting from Old Blue is truly a fine piece of investigative journalism from a blogger no doubt. You can read it here, billandbobsadventure.blogspot.com/2009/02/picasso-pelton-old-blues-paint-by.html
So the bottom line of all of this is; even though bloggers are pretty much free to write what they want, you can bet that we in the blogging community (especially the milblogging community) will keep the mainstream media honest. The milblog community is small, and most of us all know each other or are no more than 2 degrees of separation from each other. We also just about all have military experience and deployments under our belts. If anyone, other bloggers, mainstream journalists, or anyone else writes lies, exaggerations, or dishonors troops you better believe we will hold them accountable.
On a final note, I know for a fact that RYP has sent threats to other bloggers who have written about Old Blue’s posts. So let me be really clear on this posting in case RYP reads this one, be sure to send all correspondence directly to me at admin@bouhammer.com. In the words of my good friend, Maj D. ……”Bring it!”
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