Getting fallen warriors home

Published March 28, 2009
By Senior Airman Brok McCarthy
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Two Services Airmen here would probably be happier if they never had to complete their primary duties, but are honored to do them when they have to.

As members of the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron mortuary affairs office and readiness office, Master Sgt. Danny Howell and Tech. Sgt. Gabriel Martinez have the solemn duty of taking care of fallen servicemembers as they pass through here on their way back to their families.

"Those individuals went out there and gave their all for us," said Sergeant Howell, the mortuary affairs and readiness superintendent, who is deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. "We owe it to them to pay them the proper respect and make sure they make it home to their family members."

One of the most important programs the sergeants are in charge of is the Fallen Warrior program, which is the onward movement of a servicemember who was killed in the line of duty.

"When a fallen warrior is scheduled to arrive, we are notified, and begin recalling the team," said Sergeant Howell, who is from Hampton, Va. "We also take care of anything that must be done while they are here and schedule them to go to their next destination."

When a fallen warrior arrives, a six-person detail enters the aircraft to offload the member into a waiting vehicle to be escorted to a holding area. When the member comes off the aircraft, senior leadership, crewmembers and others in the area form a cordon, render a salute and pay tribute to the fallen service member. Once in the holding area, the mortuary affairs team ensures proper preservation measures are taken so the member arrives in the U.S. in the best possible condition.

"It takes half an hour to 45 minutes for just the initial part of taking the servicemember from the plane," said Sergeant Martinez, who is deployed from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. "We place them in a temporary holding facility until they depart. When they leave, it's pretty much the same thing only in reverse. We return to the aircraft, offload from the vehicle and load them back onto the aircraft for their final return home."

Because only two people work in mortuary affairs full time, the unit relies on volunteers to serve on the team. Sergeant Martinez, who is from San Antonio originally, said many of the NCOs and senior NCOs in the squadron have performed duties like this before on other deployments, however some of the volunteers have not.

One such volunteer is the 379th EFSS first sergeant, a maintainer by trade, who participated in a Fallen Warrior detail in February.

"The night of the event, there was no doubt in my mind that what we do is very serious," Master Sgt. Robert Shafer said. "You see on the news of servicemembers who die in combat, but it doesn't really hit you until you're out there."

He said one of the things people seem to complain about is the small things here, like lodging conditions or the base wireless internet not being as fast as they would like, and they forget about the people who are in harm's way.

"I was driving one of the trucks, and in that short drive, I had the opportunity to think about the fallen warrior and it helps to really enforce what being in the military is all about," he said. "It was a good dose of reality. It puts everything back into perspective -- what we are here for."

In addition to the Fallen Warriors program, the mortuary affairs office is responsible for the base's search and recovery program, which is used if someone here is killed in an incident like a vehicle or aircraft crash. If an incident occurs, a team will be sent out to recover the member and take them back to mortuary affairs for preparation to return home. Sergeant Martinez said this function hasn't been used since 2005 when a servicemember was involved in a car crash downtown.

Sergeant Howell said while mortuary affairs can be a sad job, he knows how important it is, especially to each fallen warrior's loved ones.

"It's (gratifying) to see the aircraft take off with the fallen warrior," said Sergeant Howell. "It means we did all we could to make sure that individual goes home."