In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.
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"I said, 'That's not going to happen with my son. That's not how my son is coming home,"' said Holley, an Army veteran from San Diego whose son, Spc. Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005. "If it was 'expeditious' to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?"
Damn. More:
Last year, the U.S. military spent about $1.2 million to bring home the dead on commercial flights. Switching to charter flights will cost far more: The six-month Kalitta contract is worth up to $11 million.
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"You just don't do that," he [Holley] said. "And doing that with a family watching it, they don't want to see their son's casket being unloaded with a forklift or a belt loader, and this is what Congress saw."
"Congress saw," or looked the other way, for nearly four years. Four years, it should be said, of a Republican-controlled White House and Congress.
Kalitta Charters - the airline that got the new $11 million contract - is owned by drag racer Doug Kalitta. Is he a major donor to the Republican Party? Keeps it all in the family, if so.
More here from last August. And even more. And from even earlier, January, 2006.
Looks like it was Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter who wrote up the bill that changed the policy, and with a lot of help - quickly and personally to the family - from Barbara Boxer.
The Casualty Assistance Officer contacted the office of California Senator Barbara Boxer. The Senator made a few phone calls of her own, and suddenly all reluctance and red tape vanished. The Holleys were allowed to meet their son on the runway at Lindbergh Field. A small honor guard joined them in welcoming their fallen warrior home to American soil.
