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New
York Times
Last
Inspection: Precise Ritual of
Dressing Nation’s War Dead
By Ashley Gilbertson
DOVER
AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — The
soldier bent to his work, careful as a diamond cutter. He carried no
weapon or
rucksack, just a small plastic ruler, which he used to align a name
plate, just
so, atop the breast pocket of an Army dress blue jacket, size 39R.
Sergeant
Deynes, guided by an
official military record, assembles the badges, medals, unit patches
and
ribbons that would go on the dress jacket.
“Blanchard,”
the plate read.
Capt.
Aaron R. Blanchard, a
32-year-old Army pilot, had been in Afghanistan for only a few days
when an
enemy rocket killed him and another soldier last month as they dashed
toward
their helicopter. Now he was heading home.
But
before he left the mortuary
here, he would need to be properly dressed. And so Staff Sgt. Miguel
Deynes
labored meticulously, almost lovingly, over every crease and fold,
every ribbon
and badge, of the dress uniform that would clothe Captain Blanchard in
his
final resting place.
“It’s
more than an honor,” Sergeant
Deynes said. “It’s a blessing to dress that soldier for the last time.”
About
6,700 American service
members have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and almost every
one of
their remains have come through the Dover Port Mortuary. Yet only since
2009
have journalists been allowed to photograph coffins returning from the
war
zones, the most solemn of rites at this air base. The intimate details
of the
process have been kept from public view.
But
recently the Air Force, which
oversees the mortuary, allowed a reporter and a photographer to observe
the
assembling of dress uniforms for those who have died. A small slice of
the
process, to be sure, but enough to appreciate the careful ritual that
attends
the war dead of the United States military…
Read
the rest of the article at the
New York Times
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