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Policy change elevates AF presence at Dover

The Air Force’s quiet role in bringing home service members who died overseas is now much more public.

A new policy that allows families and the media to attend “dignified transfer” ceremonies of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., goes into effect Monday.

The Air Force began working to implement the policy immediately after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Feb. 26 that the ceremonies would be open to relatives of the fallen troops and to reporters and photographers.

Gates’ decision reversed a ban on media that had been in place since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Families of the fallen men and women will have to sign off on coverage. To work with the media, the Air Force deployed additional public affairs officers to Dover.

The policy allows the Defense Department to pay the travel costs of up to three relatives of each deceased service member.

To help the loved ones who travel to Dover, family services personnel will be available, said Capt. Mike Andrews, a spokesman for the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover.

“We do anything we can to support the families,” Andrews said.

Dover also will continue to assign casualty assistance officers to each family.

While each military branch works directly with the families of its fallen service members, the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center coordinates the arrivals and departures of the deceased and makes arrangements at Dover for the families.

The Air Force’s role in returning the remains of service members begins at airfields across U.S. Central Command, where airmen are assigned to prepare the remains for flights to Dover.

The return of deceased service members is a high-priority airlift mission and, typically, the remains arrive at Dover on an Air Force transport within 30 hours of the death, Andrews said.

A colonel or higher-ranking officer and a six-member honor guard meet each flight on the ramp at Dover, Andrews said. The honor guard is from the service member’s military branch and general officers often are present.

Gates attended the March 16 return of three soldiers and an airman killed in Afghanistan.

Each service member is honored with a ceremony lasting about 10 minutes.

Later, after the remains have been through the Dover mortuary, another ceremony is held when the remains are placed on chartered jet for a flight to the funeral location or into a hearse for services in the Dover region.