Quote Originally Posted by Logan13 View Post
For some reason, no one is creating memorials outside of their family's home akin to what was done for Heath Ledger........
That's because of their Commander-In-Chief, President George W. Bush. If you don't like it, complain to him:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...Transfer_tubes

Background on Photograph Ban

The Seattle Times Ray Rivera writes April 22, 2004, that "Images of war dead a sensitive subject":
"The Pentagon has banned the media from taking pictures of military caskets returning from war since 1991, citing concern for the privacy of grieving families and friends of the dead soldiers. The Bush administration issued a stern reminder of that policy in March 2003, shortly before the war in Iraq began." "Military censors instituted a virtual blackout of such photos in World War I. That ban continued until nearly the end of World War II. ... Images of war dead proliferated in Vietnam, and throughout the 1980s, the government regularly allowed the media to take pictures of coffins returning from Lebanon, Grenada and Panama to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the primary arrival point for returning American soldiers killed overseas. "But in 1991, as the United States embarked on its first major war since Vietnam, the policy shifted. In January of that year, the administration of the first President Bush began prohibiting media outlets from taking pictures of coffins being unloaded at Dover. It instituted a total ban in November of that year." "In 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld the ban after media outlets and some other organizations sued to have it lifted. Citing the need to reduce the hardship and protect the privacy of grieving families, the court held that the ban did not violate First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press." [edit]
Seattle Times' Coffins' Photo, April 18, 2004

  • Hal Bernton, "Woman loses her job over coffins photo," Seattle Times, April 22, 2004: "A military contractor has fired Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers was published in Sunday's edition of The Seattle Times. ... Silicio was let go yesterday for violating U.S. government and company regulations, said William Silva, president of Maytag Aircraft, the contractor that employed Silicio at Kuwait International Airport."
  • Gene Johnson, "Cargo worker fired over photo of soldiers' flag-draped coffins," Chicago Sun-Times, April 23, 2004: "Maytag Aircraft Corp. fired Tami Silicio, 50, and her husband, David Landry, because they 'violated Department of Defense and company policies by working together' to take and publish the photograph, company president William Silva said in a news release Thursday. ... The firing was first reported Thursday in the Seattle Times, which published the April 7 photo on Sunday. ... The picture shows several workers inside a cargo plane parked at Kuwait International Airport securing 20 flag-draped coffins for the trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Silicio, who took the picture, told the newspaper she hoped it would portray the care and devotion with which civilian and military crews treat the remains of fallen soldiers."