Just got the news today through CNN that the military has finally started to allow the media to be present when fallen soldiers arrive back in the U.S.

His name was Phillip A. Myers. A staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, he was killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on Saturday.The return of his body to the United States aboard a charter aircraft Sunday marked a solemn moment that has been repeated more than 5,000 times at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware since the start of the war in Afghanistan in late 2001.
…
This night, however, was not like the other nights. Watching all of this were about 40 journalists allowed to cover the return of Myers’ remains. It was the first time in almost 20 years the return of a fallen U.S. service member was able to be recorded by the media.

I feel sort of mixed by this. It looks like the proceedings really keep the needs of the family in mind–reporters have rules they have to follow (like not speaking, not making “undo movements” etc), and it appears that the family has the final say over whether or not the media will be allowed. Which is all good.

But at the same time, it did make me a little uncomfortable to see that the military asked the wife of Myers if she wanted the press there–seems to me that in a world where the government is more than aware of the power of a picture–families can be “asked” in mighty forceful/pressuring ways.

Of course on a grander scale, I am *always* pleased to know that the government is trying to be transparent with the realities of what it gets us citizens into. And it think it’s *vitally* important for citizens to know what military families must deal with.

But I think, in the end, I am capable of imagining what military families and the reality of war is like without turning the families of dead soldiers into propaganda either. I think the needs of the families must come first.

What do you think?