In 1991, President George H. W. Bush implemented a ban on media coverage of returning war dead and their dignified transfer process at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Shortly after he assumed office, President Barack Obama asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to review this policy, and Gates later reversed it, giving family members of the fallen the right to allow or disallow media coverage. On April 5th, 2009, the repatriation of the remains of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Meyers became the first such event to be covered by the press in 18 years. This process has taken place, undocumented, over 5,000 times since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001. Collected here are photographs documenting the transfers of nine soldiers that have taken place since April 5th, 2009.
Members of the US Army's Old Guard carry team lift the remains of US Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, as his body is returned on a C-17 to the US from Iraq April 7, 2009 at Dover Air Force Base, in Delaware. Specialist Candelaria Mejias, 28 yrs old, was killed April 5, 2009 near Baghdad as he attempted to disarm an IED. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. Air Force Maj. Jonathon Riley stands watch over the media before the remains of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Meyers of Hopewell, Va. are offloaded from an aircraft during an arrival ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, April 5, 2009 in Dover, Delaware. Staff Sgt. Phillip Meyers was killed on April 4 by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. The transfer of Meyers' remains at Dover Air Force Base was the first to be covered by the media in 18 years. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) #
Members of the US Military stand at attention next to the remains of US Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, shortly before the carry team arrives to lift his his flag covered transfer case after his body was returned on a C-17 to the US from Iraq April 7, 2009 at Dover Air Force Base, in Delaware. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images) #
A carry team boards the plane to carry the transfer case containing the remains of Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias of San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, who died in Iraq, off of the plane during the dignified transfer event at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Tuesday, April 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) #
U.S. military personnel carry the casket containing the remains of Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias from a C17 aircraft during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday, April 7, 2009. (Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg News) #
U.S. military personnel carry the casket containing the remains of Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias to a waiting mortuary transport vehicle at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday, April 7, 2009. (Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg News ) #
An airman closes the door on a transport vehicle with the transfer case containing the body of Army specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias at Dover Air Force Base, April 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Tim Shaffer) #
Staff Sgt. Star Samuels hangs up a freshly pressed U.S. flag on March 31 at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs, Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. The flags will be placed over caskets during the dignified transfer of remains. The center is the Defense Department's largest joint-service mortuary facility and the only one in the continental United States. Sergeant Samuels is deployed from the 43rd Force Support Squadron, Pope Air Force Base, N.C. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III) #
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