Cue The Earth Tones, Soft Lights And Fake Sympathy
As Families Gather at Dover, Efforts to Ease Pain
"In the past year, as the remains of 462 service members along with nearly 2,000 relatives have passed through Dover, the experience on the flight line has become as common as it is excruciating. Now, to meet the demand and to accommodate what Dover officials expect to be increasing casualties from Afghanistan, the military has embarked on a building surge at this main entry point for the nation’s war dead.
In January, Dover opened the Center for the Families of the Fallen, a $1.6 million, 6,000-square-foot space of soft lighting and earth-toned furniture where parents, spouses, children, siblings and other relatives assemble before they are taken to the flight line. On May 1, there is to be a groundbreaking for a new $4.5 million hotel for families who need to spend the night. The same day, ground will also be broken on what Dover officials are calling a meditation center, a nondenominational space with an adjacent garden where relatives can pray or be alone."
"Dover officials acknowledge that the new amenities can hardly soften the impact and that many family members are so stunned — typically they arrive at Dover only 24 or 36 hours after they have been notified of a loved one’s death — that they barely notice the surroundings. Chaplains have learned to be ready to catch family members, typically mothers, whose knees sometimes buckle when they first see the flag-covered cases of their children come off the planes. Because of military schedules, the flights land at any time, but often in the middle of the night.
“You’re kind of numb, and getting up that early in the morning, you’re even number,” Sergeant World’s mother, Susan World-Missana, said by telephone from Buffalo a few days after the return of the body of her son, who was killed by a homemade bomb near the southern Afghan town of Marja. Sergeant World left behind a wife, Beth World, and a 3-year-old son and a 2-month-old daughter he had never met. He was due home in two months.
The family center, Mrs. World-Missana said, “looked like a mortuary, but it was impressive.”
“I mean, it was very nice,” she added. “But due to the circumstances, I don’t think anything’s going to matter.”
"In the past year, as the remains of 462 service members along with nearly 2,000 relatives have passed through Dover, the experience on the flight line has become as common as it is excruciating. Now, to meet the demand and to accommodate what Dover officials expect to be increasing casualties from Afghanistan, the military has embarked on a building surge at this main entry point for the nation’s war dead.
In January, Dover opened the Center for the Families of the Fallen, a $1.6 million, 6,000-square-foot space of soft lighting and earth-toned furniture where parents, spouses, children, siblings and other relatives assemble before they are taken to the flight line. On May 1, there is to be a groundbreaking for a new $4.5 million hotel for families who need to spend the night. The same day, ground will also be broken on what Dover officials are calling a meditation center, a nondenominational space with an adjacent garden where relatives can pray or be alone."
"Dover officials acknowledge that the new amenities can hardly soften the impact and that many family members are so stunned — typically they arrive at Dover only 24 or 36 hours after they have been notified of a loved one’s death — that they barely notice the surroundings. Chaplains have learned to be ready to catch family members, typically mothers, whose knees sometimes buckle when they first see the flag-covered cases of their children come off the planes. Because of military schedules, the flights land at any time, but often in the middle of the night.
“You’re kind of numb, and getting up that early in the morning, you’re even number,” Sergeant World’s mother, Susan World-Missana, said by telephone from Buffalo a few days after the return of the body of her son, who was killed by a homemade bomb near the southern Afghan town of Marja. Sergeant World left behind a wife, Beth World, and a 3-year-old son and a 2-month-old daughter he had never met. He was due home in two months.
The family center, Mrs. World-Missana said, “looked like a mortuary, but it was impressive.”
“I mean, it was very nice,” she added. “But due to the circumstances, I don’t think anything’s going to matter.”
posted by nolocontendere at 9:16 PM
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