For nearly a decade, military personnel transported flag-draped
coffins containing the bodies of troops killed in action from
seemingly just-arrived cargo planes during ceremonies near hangar
35 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
In reality, however, the remains of those soldiers may have spent
upwards of months in military custody before being paraded out
during partially-fabricated ceremonial presentations carried out
by the government’s Joint Prisoner of War Accounting Command, or
JPAC.
Bill Dedman, an investigative reporter for NBC, said that the
Pentagon confirmed this week “that no honored dead were in
fact arriving, and that the planes used in the ceremonies often
couldn’t even fly but were towed into position.”
The Pentagon has since released a statement of its own clarifying
the falsity of such events.
“These pre-planned ceremonies are symbolic in nature, with the
purpose of honoring those Americans who made the ultimate
sacrifice in support of our nation,” the Pentagon admitted.
“Part of the ceremony involves symbolically transferring the
recovered remains from an aircraft to a vehicle for follow-on
transportation to the lab. Many times, static aircraft are used
for the ceremonies, as operational requirements dictate flight
schedules and aircraft availability. This transfer symbolizes the
arrival of our fallen service members. It is important to note
that recovered remains ceremoniously transferred from the
aircraft to the CIL vehicle have been in the lab undergoing
forensic analysis to determine identity,” the statement
continued.
World War II veteran Jesse Baker told Dedman that he attended at
least 50 of the ceremonies, and always thought the bodies of his
fellow servicemen were being saluted as soon as they returned on
US soil from abroad.
“If I have been fooled, I am going to be a very pissed-off
citizen, because I’ve been going for years,” Baker said.
“And I know a lot of guys who are going to be pissed off. …
They’re out there honoring warriors.”
Rick Stone, a former deputy chief with JPAC who spoke with Dedman
for the NBC report, said the reality regarding the troops’ final
arrival was much less sensational that the ceremonies suggest.
“When remains are brought back by JPAC staff, Stone said, they
arrive from the airport in a plastic box in an employee’s private
vehicle, with no ceremony,” Dedman reported after meeting
with him.
“It’s an open fraud inside JPAC,” Stone said of the
ceremonies. “But it’s more than just the arrival ceremony. The
fraud is really their inability to bring closure to more
families. Our noble mission is to go find some of these kids, and
this thing is so fouled up we don’t even recognize the
mission.”
Copyright: RT