DURHAM, NC (August 12, 2008) – Daily news photographs of flag-draped caskets arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were common in the papers and on nightly news during the Vietnam War, so much so that the phrase "The Dover Test" was used by analysts to determine the public's tolerance or intolerance for growing war casualties.
Powerful photographs from the Vietnam War, including those from Dover, helped shift public opinion about the conflict and more and more Americans became opposed to the country's efforts in Southeast Asia.
In America's ensuing wars the military wanted to make sure that didn't happen again and tried different methods of corralling photojournalism, including censorship in the first Gulf War and embedding photographers with troops to keep them under tight control. The Department of Defense didn't want a repeat of what happened, photographically, in Vietnam.
At home the clamp down has included trying to control coverage of the return of soldiers killed in war. Since 1991 and the Persian Gulf War the media have been banned from covering the arrival of flag-draped coffins at Dover. The air base is the military's largest mortuary facility, where the bodies of soldiers killed in overseas action are prepared for burial before they are sent to famalies and hometown cemeteries across the United States.
On the vast concrete tarmac at Dover, the solemn ceremony of soldiers and chaplains and honor guards welcoming home the bodies of America's war dead is carried out with no media present, in secret.
Many Americans, as well as the media, have cried foul over the Department of Defense and the Bush Administration's ban of coverage of American soldiers' bodies arriving back home and have grown weary of the censorship and the effort to control public opinion based on what's seen – or, in this case, not seen – in the news. The opinion isn't held just by the media; on Capitol Hill, there's also a growing movement to bring the Dover ban to an end, and Congressman Walter B. Jones (R-NC) has taken the first step.
Jones says that he wants to make sure that the American public remembers that the country is at war, and that American soldiers are dying in battle. Jones has introduced HR 6662, the Fallen Hero Commemoration Act, which will allow credentialed media members to photograph Dover's military ceremonies as bodies of soldiers killed on active duty return home, as well as covering the flag-draped coffins arriving at any military installation.
“Throughout the history of our Nation, members of the United States Armed Forces have selflessly given their lives to secure and protect the freedoms Americans enjoy today," Congressman Jones said. "Today, our military is serving our nation in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other parts of the world. Without a loved one serving in the military, it is sometimes possible for Americans to overlook the sacrifices that have been made – and continue to be made – by members of the Armed Forces on behalf of our Nation.
"By once again permitting access to accredited members of the media at military commemoration ceremonies, memorial services conducted by the Armed Forces, and the arrival of the remains of fallen service members at U.S. military installations, this legislation would honor those who have given their lives in defense of our Nation," Jones said.
The National Press Photographers Association today sent letters of support to Congressman Jones endorsing the Fallen Hero Commemoration Act, as well as sending letters of support to the presumptive presidential candidates, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL), at their Senate offices.
"To deny media coverage of the return of our fallen heroes is a brazen attempt by the military to deny history," NPPA's general legal counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher wrote to Congressman Jones.
"While our government tries to bring liberty and democracy to all corners of the world it lately seems to have forgotten that those freedoms are no less important at home. ... Throughout our history photojournalists have documented every aspect of human endeavor from triumphs to tragedies. It is unfortunate that war often times creates the most compelling images. From Matthew Brady’s graphic photos of Civil War battlefields to Joe Rosenthal’s raising of the American Flag on Iwo Jima news photographers have risked (and all too often lost) their lives to capture these moments so that the public may be informed of these newsworthy events. A free, robust and unfettered press is as much a part of our history and culture as is the Constitution and the three branches of government."
NPPA president Bob Carey says the legislation introduced by Jones is important to photojournalists and NPPA members, and that he intends to follow it closely and support it as Jones moves the bill through Congress.
"My father was an Army Major, having spent over 27 years in the military. I was raised on military bases and have a tremendous respect and understanding of the U.S. military," Carey wrote to Jones. "I was taught at an early age that members of our Armed Forces protect our freedoms and they should not be taken for granted. As a part of war, members of the military must sacrifice their lives for our freedoms. Now as a photojournalist and educator, my role is to teach the youth of today the importance of our freedoms. ... The NPPA wholeheartedly supports H.R. 6662."
The Fallen Hero Commemoration Act is cosponsored by Representatives Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Ron Paul (R-TX), Ted Poe (R-TX), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), and Gene Taylor (D-MS). Jones says that he hopes to have a hearing on the Fallen Hero Commemoration Act in September.
At the beginning of the war, Jones was a strong supporter of the effort. Since then he has changed his opinion and joined other House members in asking the Bush Administration to withdraw troops from Iraq.
In 2004, a photograph showing around 20 flag-draped coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq being loaded onto an Air Force plane in Kuwait for the flight home to Dover was taken by a American civil contractor and sent to The Seattle Times, violating company and government bans on such pictures. When it ran on the Times' front page it was met with equal amounts of outrage and praise, but it was the fist time a photograph of America's soldiers killed in Iraq was published by the media in the States. The Pentagon's ban on taking that kind of photograph does not include a ban on publishing the picture, only on shooting it and distributing it. The contractor lost her job because of the photograph.
