Mother of dead soldier protests Pentagon ban.

[keithyboy]

Tuesday 29 June 2004, 2:11 Makka Time, 23:11 GMT

The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq asked US media to photograph her son's flag-draped casket arriving at Sacramento International Airport.

Nadia McCaffrey said she wanted to protest a Pentagon policy banning media coverage of America's war dead.

Nearly a dozen reporters, photographers and television crews watched as the coffin of Army Sargeant Patrick McCaffrey, 34, was transferred to a hearse outside an airport cargo terminal shortly before midnight on Sunday, officials said.

"I don't care what President Bush wants," McCaffrey, told the Los Angeles Times. Patrick "did not die for nothing ... The way he lived needs to be talked about. Patrick was not a fighter, he was a peacemaker."

[Tsiyu]

1. You Tell 'Em Mama

Only a mama's heart can break that way. I'm proud of her.

Here's to Patrick:
Let's not forget him or any of the Patricks fighting for Halliburton

[Eloriel]

2. Here's a link

http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/3469290/detail.html

I love this story, and this woman. This is exactly what we need: more civil disobedience. Brava, Mrs. McCaffrey!

[DieboldMustDie]

5. It's not civil disobedience.

Since this occurred at Sacramento International Airport, not at a military base, it didn't violate Bush's ban.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0628-05.htm

[mbee]

3. People should be outraged that the media covers the contractors

who got killed (the latest one was in Saudia Arabia I believe), but they aren't covering our own servicemen.

[wellstone_democrat]

4. That's right: make everyone look and learn

I'd rather honor this woman's son and all the sons and daughters coming home to be laid to rest by facing the human cost of wars. Hiding them makes them the shameful object not our policies.

Thank you Ms. McCaffrey for allowing my family to remember your son with you this day. If you allowed them to hide him, we would not have gotten the chance.