Military embraces mourning families at Dover Air Force Base

Military embraces mourning families

By HOWARD ALTMAN

haltman@tampatrib.com

Published: February 19, 2010

Greg Reiners stood on the flight line at Dover Air Force base early Monday.

It was cold and silent, save for the sound of soldiers' footfalls and the whine of the C-17's generators keeping the lights on in the bay of the big cargo plane ahead of them.

Reiners, flanked by daughter-in-law Casey Reiners and his ex-wife, Ronna Jackson, waited with the families of two other soldiers killed when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into their patrol in southern Afghanistan last Friday.

They listened to the chaplain say a prayer. Then the caskets were rolled down the cargo ramp.

John Reiners' was first.

Casey Reiners and Ronna Jackson started crying.

"I got weak in the knees, too," Greg Reiners said. "But I had to stand strong."

He embraced his daughter-in-law. He embraced his ex-wife.

"I held them tight," he said. "I let them know I was there for both of them."

For Reiners, the experience was deeply moving and greatly appreciated.

In April, the Obama administration instituted a policy that pays for up to three family members to fly to Dover, the sprawling Delaware base where Americans killed in action are brought home. The change came at the same time the administration allowed the media to attend the ceremonies if given the permission of the families.

"If not for this program, I would not have been able to experience this," said Reiners, who is from Lakeland.
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Military embraces mourning families

In pre-dawn darkness, Obama salutes victims of war

President Obama witnessed the return to U.S. soil of the bodies of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan, an experience he called "sobering." (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/associated Press)

In pre-dawn darkness, Obama salutes victims of war
By Michael Fletcher and Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009

On Wednesday, President Obama started his day in the Oval Office as he always does, with intelligence and economic advisers alerting him to trouble spots and bits of improvement. He ended it 20 hours later, after a surprise trip to Dover Air Force Base, where he witnessed the return of 18 Americans killed this week in Afghanistan.

His day already had been crowded. By nightfall, the president had appeared in public five times. He honored a Senate pioneer, named an opponent to a panel, signed the defense bill, planted a tree and held a reception for a crowd jubilant over a new law. He made jokes, offered embraces, posed for photos, spoke firmly. He had dinner with his two girls, on the eve of their first Halloween in Washington. His wife was in New York at the first World Series game.

All the while, he knew the most sober and grim public duty of his new presidency awaited him after midnight.
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In pre-dawn darkness, Obama salutes victims of war

Bodies of servicemen killed by comrade come home from Camp Liberty

Bodies of servicemen killed by comrade come home
Story Highlights
Bodies of five fatally shot by fellow soldier at a stress clinic in Iraq returned

Bodies, in flag-draped cases, arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware

Family of three permitted photographers to document the return of loved ones


(CNN) -- The bodies of five U.S. servicemen fatally shot by a comrade at a stress clinic in Iraq were returned to the United States late Wednesday

Army Sgt. John M. Russell of Texas charged with five counts of murder
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met the bodies -- contained in flag-draped cases -- when they arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Family members of three of those killed permitted photographers to document the return of their loved ones.

They were Army Maj. Matthew P. Houseal, 54, of Amarillo, Texas; Army Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of Paterson, New Jersey; and Army Private First Class Michael E. Yates, 19, of Federalsburg, Maryland.

The two victims not photographed were Navy Cmdr. Charles K. Springle, 52, of Wilmington, North Carolina, and Army Spc. Jacob D. Barton, 20, of Lenox, Missouri.
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Bodies of servicemen killed by comrade come home
Family mourns slain soldier 5:04
The family of one of the U.S. soldiers who died when a fellow soldier opened fire at a Baghdad Army stress clinic speaks out.