Todd Heisler
The Rocky Mountain News
When 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrived at the RenoAirport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine's casket last year at DenverInternationalAirport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process: "See the people in the windows? They'll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home," he said. "They're going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They're going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should."
Marine 2nd Lieutenant Jim Cathey had been in Iraq little more than a month before he was killed last August 21 by an improvised explosive device. His body was escorted back to his home in Reno, Nevada, by a fellow Marine, Sergeant Gavin Conley, who had met Cathey as a 17-year-old when the two went to boot camp together. Cathey's last trip home was on an American Airlines flight, his coffin in the cargo hold and Conley riding in the first-class section, a courtesy extended by the airline. On arrival in Reno, passengers were told by the pilot to remain in their seats until Sergeant Conley had disembarked and seen his friend delivered into the arms of his family and pregnant wife.
The family had been accompanied to the airport
that night by Major Steven Beck, site commander of Marine Air Control Squadron
23 at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado. It was his job, and the job of
the honor guard he commanded, to stand watch over fallen comrades and to
provide comfort to their grieving families. But this night two journalists
also stood with the family of Lieutenant Cathey: Jim Sheeler, a reporter
and writer for Denver's Rocky Mountain News, and Todd Heisler, one of the
newspaper's staff photographers. For the past nine months the pair had
been working on a feature article about Major Beck and his men, photographing
funerals and somber small-town ceremonies, speaking to fathers and mothers
in quiet living rooms where life seemed to have come to a halt.
Todd Heisler
The Rocky Mountain News
The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of 'Cat,' and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."
Todd Heisler, Rocky Mountain News, Denver
2006 ASNE Award for community service photojournalism
For the past year, the Rocky Mountain News has followed Maj. Steve Beck as he takes on the most difficult duty of his career: casualty notification. As Beck and his comrades at Buckley Air Force Base keep constant watch over the caskets of the men they never knew, the Marines also comfort the families of the fallen, and choke back tears of their own.
It's all part of a tradition that started in 1775: Never leave a Marine behind.
After the knock on the door, the story has
only begun.
Todd Heisler
There's a price to be paid for war, and that
price is death. Those people who started the Iraq war, now widely accepted
as a huge mistake, know why they wanted to keep that price out of the public's
consciousness. Todd Heisler is one of those people who wouldn't let that
happen. Final Salute is a report on those people who do what is called
"casualty notification". I think I wouldn't have linked to it, though,
if it wasn't for one single picture, which might be, for me at least, one
of the most poignant photos I've seen about the Iraq war, as seen (or not
seen) from inside the US. It's this one. I just can't stop looking at the
people who you can see in the windows.
see also: http://www.americanphotomag.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=3476
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see also: http://www.americanphotomag.com/
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see also: http://www.poyi.org/63/NPOY/index.php
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see also: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/
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see also: http://www.photojournalism.org/2005/Contest/2005winnerslist.html
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see also: http://www.photojournalism.org/2005/Contest/stories/BOS/
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see also: http://www.corpsstories.com/Editorials-Winter06-Heisler.htm
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see also: Todd
Heisler photos | photos
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JOHN LONGENECKER
