thedrifter
06-08-07, 06:32 AM
Published: 06.08.2007
Denogean : Casualty officers' duty is difficult but admirable
ANNE T. DENOGEAN
Tucson Citizen
It is described in an official guide for soldiers as "one of the most difficult duties you will be called upon to perform in your military career."
It's certainly one of the saddest for everyone involved - notifying families of a loved one's combat death.
The Arizona Republic reports that since March 20, 2003, 111 soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors with ties to Arizona have been killed in the line of duty while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The task of informing the families of quite a few of them fell to the Casualty Assistance Center and the soldiers of Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista.
Michael Barber, the post's casualty and mortuary assistance officer, said each soldier he trains for this duty knows it could just as easily be his family on the receiving end of bad news.
"That is the one thing we stress to the soldiers that we are training. . . . 'Please, treat these families, take care of them the way you would want yours taken care of.' And they do. They really do."
The casualty center, one of 27 such Army centers located around the world, serves Arizona, Nevada and the southern half of California, Barber said.
It's a four-person office, including Barber, but he also has a rotating monthly schedule of six on-call soldiers who are trained in notification and casualty assistance procedures.
Once Fort Huachuca learns of a soldier's death from the Department of the Army, it has a few hours to tell the family.
A team of two heads out with the sketchy details of the death, information on the soldier from his records and what all hope is a current address for the soldier's immediate family.
"Obviously our goal is . . . to send a soldier out to notify the family before the family hears about it from a friend calling on the phone or sees it on CNN or NBC News or other organizations," Barber said.
Because the center covers such a large geographic area, it also relies on soldiers with the National Guard and Reserve units and other military posts to quickly notify families after being briefed by the Fort Huachuca center, he said.
"It's a pretty traumatic thing to have to go out and tell someone, 'You just lost someone,' " Barber said. "A lot of these folks grieve along with these families."
The Casualty Assistance Center coordinates with Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on the return of the remains. It arranges the plane-side ceremony and military funeral honors.
On April 13, when a chartered airliner carrying the casket of Tucsonan Pfc. Damian Lopez Rodriguez arrived at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, it was met by a Fort Huachuca Honor Guard and a formation of several dozen D-M airmen.
It wasn't part of their duties. They were simply paying their respects to a fallen brother.
"It doesn't matter what branch of the service you're in. We're all on the same team," said Teresa Perrin, D-M's casualty assistance manager.
Shortly after being notified of a soldier's death, a family also is assigned a casualty assistance officer to make sure it quickly receives the $100,000 death gratuity and all other benefits to which it is entitled, Barber said.
The assistance officer also makes sure the family receives the fallen soldier's personal effects.
D-M has its own casualty assistance center but has not had any combat deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan, Perrin said.
Fort Huachuca's Casualty Assistance Center has handled hundreds of military deaths since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Barber said.
Tanja Linton is a Fort Huachuca spokeswoman who acts as a buffer between the press and the families of killed soldiers when the families request it.
At the Lopez Rodriguez ceremony, I overheard her talking about the irony of so many deaths making her better at her job. I asked her about it later.
"It does sadden me that we've done just entirely too many of these that we've become good at it. Then I remind myself we're dealing with families that suddenly have to deal with media and government bureaucracy they are completely unfamiliar with and with just the sheer amount of work that goes into arranging a funeral," she said.
No matter where you stand on the war, let's all hope Fort Huachuca folks get far fewer opportunities in the future to exercise their hard-earned skill in comforting and assisting the families of dead soldiers.
Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.
Ellie
Denogean : Casualty officers' duty is difficult but admirable
ANNE T. DENOGEAN
Tucson Citizen
It is described in an official guide for soldiers as "one of the most difficult duties you will be called upon to perform in your military career."
It's certainly one of the saddest for everyone involved - notifying families of a loved one's combat death.
The Arizona Republic reports that since March 20, 2003, 111 soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors with ties to Arizona have been killed in the line of duty while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The task of informing the families of quite a few of them fell to the Casualty Assistance Center and the soldiers of Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista.
Michael Barber, the post's casualty and mortuary assistance officer, said each soldier he trains for this duty knows it could just as easily be his family on the receiving end of bad news.
"That is the one thing we stress to the soldiers that we are training. . . . 'Please, treat these families, take care of them the way you would want yours taken care of.' And they do. They really do."
The casualty center, one of 27 such Army centers located around the world, serves Arizona, Nevada and the southern half of California, Barber said.
It's a four-person office, including Barber, but he also has a rotating monthly schedule of six on-call soldiers who are trained in notification and casualty assistance procedures.
Once Fort Huachuca learns of a soldier's death from the Department of the Army, it has a few hours to tell the family.
A team of two heads out with the sketchy details of the death, information on the soldier from his records and what all hope is a current address for the soldier's immediate family.
"Obviously our goal is . . . to send a soldier out to notify the family before the family hears about it from a friend calling on the phone or sees it on CNN or NBC News or other organizations," Barber said.
Because the center covers such a large geographic area, it also relies on soldiers with the National Guard and Reserve units and other military posts to quickly notify families after being briefed by the Fort Huachuca center, he said.
"It's a pretty traumatic thing to have to go out and tell someone, 'You just lost someone,' " Barber said. "A lot of these folks grieve along with these families."
The Casualty Assistance Center coordinates with Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on the return of the remains. It arranges the plane-side ceremony and military funeral honors.
On April 13, when a chartered airliner carrying the casket of Tucsonan Pfc. Damian Lopez Rodriguez arrived at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, it was met by a Fort Huachuca Honor Guard and a formation of several dozen D-M airmen.
It wasn't part of their duties. They were simply paying their respects to a fallen brother.
"It doesn't matter what branch of the service you're in. We're all on the same team," said Teresa Perrin, D-M's casualty assistance manager.
Shortly after being notified of a soldier's death, a family also is assigned a casualty assistance officer to make sure it quickly receives the $100,000 death gratuity and all other benefits to which it is entitled, Barber said.
The assistance officer also makes sure the family receives the fallen soldier's personal effects.
D-M has its own casualty assistance center but has not had any combat deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan, Perrin said.
Fort Huachuca's Casualty Assistance Center has handled hundreds of military deaths since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Barber said.
Tanja Linton is a Fort Huachuca spokeswoman who acts as a buffer between the press and the families of killed soldiers when the families request it.
At the Lopez Rodriguez ceremony, I overheard her talking about the irony of so many deaths making her better at her job. I asked her about it later.
"It does sadden me that we've done just entirely too many of these that we've become good at it. Then I remind myself we're dealing with families that suddenly have to deal with media and government bureaucracy they are completely unfamiliar with and with just the sheer amount of work that goes into arranging a funeral," she said.
No matter where you stand on the war, let's all hope Fort Huachuca folks get far fewer opportunities in the future to exercise their hard-earned skill in comforting and assisting the families of dead soldiers.
Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.
Ellie