Controversial Air Force casket photo prompts investigation

Controversial Air Force casket photo prompts investigation

news.yahoo.com

The Air Force has launched an investigation into a controversial photo that shows several non-commissioned officers posing with an open casket, in which a fellow airman poses with a noose around his neck and chains over his body.
The Air Force Times received a copy of the photo over email, which includes the caption, "Da Dumpt, Da Dumpt …. Sucks 2 Be U." The casket is similar to those used to transport deceased U.S. soldiers home from the battlefield.

(visit the link for the full news article)

When I saw this photo and story I knew I had to bring it to my fellow A.T.S.er’s…
My first reaction, unlike the MSM‘s, was not one of shock, but one of wonder.
Not “Why did they do that!?”
But, “I wonder what that means?”
Is it that they are sick of the war?
Is it just saying “We are counting ourselves lucky that we are not leaving Iraq in one of these caskets.”?
I my opinion, it means something, and I want to know what that something is.


news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

These guys are bored out of their minds.

I just think it's kind of a souvenir.

I wouldn't read too much into it.

reply to post by whyamIhere


I don't know...
Maybe your right.

It might just be to much A.T.S.

It kind of does that to you after a while.

first thing i thought of when i saw this image was yale university.

reply to post by whyamIhere


Thats got to be the most ignorant opinion i could have ever imagined to be why this picture was taken.

dozens pose with this body bc they are "bored out of their minds"? Who does something like that out of boredom?

Whatever the reason they posed for this, it's extremely disrespectful, to the family, to the military, to the american people, and to themselves. These are supposed to be the kind of people protecting us?

Everyone in this picture is nothing but a child, who hasnt yet learned respect for others, its the equivalent of elementary school style finger pointing, and misbehavior.

Do adults have no morals anymore? Were a society of "civilized" animals, with no moral compass. Add the evidence for that is in this picture, and in the myriad of examples of our dying and disrespected earth.

Originally posted by whyamIhere
These guys are bored out of their minds.

I just think it's kind of a souvenir.

I wouldn't read too much into it.

I'd tend to agree with you. At first this struck me as so wrong I had trouble finding words....then I calmed down from that initial outrage and thought more about it.

These are soldiers who have been up to their eyeballs in blood, guts and dying friends for who knows how many deployments each. To them, this is blowing off some steam...and I'm sure this photo was never intended to go public in any way beyond the men in it and those they personally shared it with.

I think you're right on your brief comment. We've come to make mountains out of molehills even when there is really nothing there to get mad about.

reply to post by mikemck1976


its military humour - dont worry if you dont understand it - its not aimed at you

REMEMBER, it's LEGAL to show slaughtered Middle-Eastern children on T.V but ILLEGAL to show American Flag draped caskets returning from there........

With the bulldog logo( I can't read the text);the crossed arms; it might be some kind of a"Unit thang"an "inside joke"or tradition.Plentyof Squadrons have their own "challenge coins" and unit traditions.Some go alltheway back to the"Army air corp days" of WWII.
USAF Munitions troops OF ALL FLAVORS (afsc 461,462,463,464) are familiar with the cry: "AMMO!" "IF YOU AINT "AMMO" YOU AINT SH#t! "Good way to get a "free" beer in an NCo club on an active duty base with a working flight line...
For you Civilians:" I wouldn't worry your pretty little heads about it...It's "tacky"; not indicative of the complete breakdown of military bearing and discipline.

Originally posted by metalshredmetal
reply to post by whyamIhere

 

Thats got to be the most ignorant opinion i could have ever imagined to be why this picture was taken.

dozens pose with this body bc they are "bored out of their minds"? Who does something like that out of boredom?

Whatever the reason they posed for this, it's extremely disrespectful, to the family, to the military, to the american people, and to themselves. These are supposed to be the kind of people protecting us?

Everyone in this picture is nothing but a child, who hasnt yet learned respect for others, its the equivalent of elementary school style finger pointing, and misbehavior.

Do adults have no morals anymore? Were a society of "civilized" animals, with no moral compass. Add the evidence for that is in this picture, and in the myriad of examples of our dying and disrespected earth.

edit on 12/16/11 by metalshredmetal because: "Demoralization of behavior" : look it up

Go ahead and get yourself all worked up if you want too.

Disrespect? Kind of a harsh judgement of a photo.

Ignorant? Well, you didn't get a cherry there.

Conclusion.....Lighten up Francis

I think you all would have very different opinions here if they was youre father or brother in the coffin. Then you might act like a real human, with empathy.

I understand the whole "im in the military and I see people die, im so tough bc I have no emotion" bulljive...but thats no excuse...this guy was someones family.

Look up the term "demoralization of behavior" and its role in behavior control..

Our entire country is experiencing demoralization and this thread is a good example.

Once you have no empathy for other human beings, than youre no longer human, in my eyes.

Infantile minded animals, these people are.

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
REMEMBER, it's LEGAL to show slaughtered Middle-Eastern children on T.V but ILLEGAL to show American Flag draped caskets returning from there........

Thats because casket photos are of Americans, which nationalists care about more than foreign children, so they somehow justified not showing pictures to fuel the war. They rarely show the kids on TV either. Both issues are sad.

Lets see...

I don't mean to be insulting, but these people are clearly not the most intelligent people. Why are we so shocked that they make some REALLY stupid decisions?

We've had American soldiers filming themselves killing innocent people. We've seen photos of them abusing and torturing prisoners. We've heard them laughing over footage as they shoot people.

Be glad these troops are just taking an image that they should have known would embarrass them and their service. It could have been - and often has been - far worse!

Originally posted by metalshredmetal
I think you all would have very different opinions here if they was youre father or brother in the coffin. Then you might act like a real human, with empathy.

I understand the whole "im in the military and I see people die, im so tough bc I have no emotion" bulljive...but thats no excuse...this guy was someones family.

I think you've missed the point that the guy in the coffin is posing, he's not dead.

This is a staged image, that either intentionally mocks other soldiers who have been killed, or can be construed as being that.

At the very least these people are complete idiots who should not be in charge of their own breathing let alone a weapon. At worst they are a disgrace, insulting the memories of other people who have died.

IMO, it reads as them saying "ha! we lived, you died, dumbass!" and if that's the message people are getting from this that is very concerning indeed.

Shame on them for either being so disgusting, or being so pathetically ignorant and stupid.

Originally posted by whyamIhere
These guys are bored out of their minds.

I just think it's kind of a souvenir.

I wouldn't read too much into it.

Ummmm...It's an official photo from the unit and they have some senior enlisted in the photo. This photo was published in the Air Force times and there is a large investigation underway...

Originally posted by metalshredmetal
I think you all would have very different opinions here if they was youre father or brother in the coffin. Then you might act like a real human, with empathy.

I understand the whole "im in the military and I see people die, im so tough bc I have no emotion" bulljive...but thats no excuse...this guy was someones family.

He still is someone's family.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
These are soldiers who have been up to their eyeballs in blood, guts and dying friends for who knows how many deployments each.

They're not soldiers, they're airmen. If they're up to their eyeballs in anything, it's not blood, guts, and dying friends. Probably beer.

Either this is reeeallly messed up

or

"posing with an open casket, in which a fellow airman poses with a noose around his neck and chains over his body. "

Some sort of protest? EDIT: Read more, guess not, just screwed up, brains are also sometime casualties of war unfortunately..

I don't understand how this could be intended to be a joke, which is why I hope there is something more to this. If they were just messing around, then this is screwed up.

reply to post by 46ACE


This is what I found inregards to there crossed arms..

Most of the Airmen in the photo, among them at least one technical sergeant and one staff sergeant, have their arms in front of them, their wrists crossed and held just below their neck – a hand signal used by aerial port squadron Airmen to mean “stop” or “cargo load secured.”

Source

The 345th TS at Fort Lee is the Air Force’s air transport and transportation schoolhouse. While Airmen in training there are not schooled on dignified transfer of remains, a spokesman for the unit told Air Force Times that transfer cases such as the one that appears in the photo are kept at the base.

An Army staff sergeant who sent the photo to the paper told Air Force Times the image was uploaded to a Facebook page in October and spotted by a former soldier after a friend was tagged in it.

Staff Sgt. Elias Bonilla told the paper that when the person in the photo was contacted about it, he laughed it off. The former soldier began sending the image to other friends, until Bonilla got hold of it and emailed it to the paper.

“I cannot help but picture the faces of my dead [soldiers] that we drug out of burning vehicles, dug out from collapsed buildings,” Bonilla told the paper in an email.

The Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, which oversees all training units in the Air Force, ordered an investigation after being contacted by the paper.

AETC spokesman David Smith said it would take about two weeks to wrap up the investigation.

I guess in 2 weeks we may find out the results of the investigation.