is nothing sacred?
I'm not even going to excerpt this smear job from Drudge. The insinuation is that there was "pressure" on the military to expedite Charlie Dean's repatriation and the forensic identification, ahead of the queue. It's laced with anonymous outraged servicemen "fuming" at the flag honors and other "special treatment" afforded to Charlie.
Note Charles Dean, although a civilian, is considered by the U.S. government to have been a prisoner of war, according to Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon office in charge of POW and MIA issues:
The military honors for Charlie - and all POW-MIA recovered from the war - are entirely appropriate.
What is inappropriate, and worthy of outrage, is the attempt to use even this somber and emotional homecoming as ammunition against the Dean family.
Note Charles Dean, although a civilian, is considered by the U.S. government to have been a prisoner of war, according to Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon office in charge of POW and MIA issues:
There are currently 1,875 Americans missing from the Vietnam conflict, including some civilians such as Dean, Greer said. He did not have a precise number of missing civilians but said they include government contractors, missionaries and those like Dean who had no connection to military operations.
The military tracks those missing Americans for two reasons: Government contractors deserve the same effort as military members and civilians need to be tracked so their remains aren't mistaken for those of soldiers, Greer said.
"We track everybody who's an American," he added.
The military honors for Charlie - and all POW-MIA recovered from the war - are entirely appropriate.
What is inappropriate, and worthy of outrage, is the attempt to use even this somber and emotional homecoming as ammunition against the Dean family.
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