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Old 06-01-2009, 06:53 AM
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Default ‘Dignity, honor and respect’ for fallen soldiers

Tacoma News Tribune


A body of a fallen service member arrives at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The family often is present to greet the aircraft. An honor guard escorts the flag-draped coffin off the cargo jet.

As the family mourns, the base’s mortuary affairs crew goes to work. There will be an autopsy. Someone will sort through possessions for return to the family. The fallen service member is embalmed. Tailors sew on the proper unit patches and ensure the dress uniform fits perfectly. Another polishes the buttons and medals.

Airmen from McChord Air Force Base help do the tasks with care and dignity.

“We don’t focus on the ugly,” said Senior Master Sgt. Stephen Harris, a Kitsap County resident and reservist from McChord. “We focus on those people who are waiting for their loved ones to come home. They become like family. We try to do the best we can for them.”

Harris is one of nine members of McChord’s 446th Airlift Wing who deployed to Dover this year to work in its mortuary affairs section. They are among about 100 service members from each branch of the military who prepare bodies for the return to their families.

“It’s something not many other people can do,” said Staff Sgt. Arlene Brunk, an Issaquah resident who worked in Dover’s autopsy section for four months. “It’s my way of serving my country and paying tribute to those who went to Iraq and Afghanistan but didn’t come back.”

It was Brunk’s second deployment to Dover since 2001 and the fourth deployment for her unit, the 446th Services Flight.

Brunk, 50, works as a corrections officer and has no civilian background in embalming. She chose to attend the Air Force’s mortuary school because she felt it was a fitting way to repay a country that accepted her as an immigrant from the Philippines.

She never sought extra information about the bodies she prepared, nor did she talk with families. She took part in one transfer ceremony and called it “one of the most honorable and dignified events I’ve ever witnessed.”

Still, the nature of her work could take a toll.

“You have to set your emotions aside,” she said. “But at times it surfaces. We’re all human. You can’t deny what’s going on.”

Harris, a 52-year-old Brownsville resident, is the 446th Services Flight’s operations superintendent. At Dover, he makes sure there are adequate staff members for the autopsy, embalming and other jobs.

He extended his deployment until later this month and is one of two people from his unit still in Delaware; the other trains the team that carries the coffins from the aircraft.

“When we leave here, we say a prayer,” he said. “When we arrive here, we say a prayer. We say a prayer for us, we say a prayer for the family and a prayer for (the Dover operation) itself.”

Brass lettering adorns the wall at the entrance to Dover Air Force Base’s mortuary section, and the airmen see it every time they pass. It reads: “With Dignity, Honor and Respect.”

“When we come in, and we see those words, we know that’s what we’re providing,” said Harris, who has 29 years of military experience. “At the end of the day, we remember that we provided that dignity, honor and respect every day we show up.”
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