Below is an article in the MacDill AFB Newspaper called the MacDill Thunderbolt…Jan. 21, 2005 edition……It’s motto is
Mission First, People Always, America Forever…..
www.macdillthunderbolt.com

Chaplain recalls honoring fallen in Baghdad
By: Chaplain Maj. Shane Gaster….509th Bomb Wing

Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.
... The telephone in the chapel tent at Camp Sather, the Air Force contingent at Baghdad Internal Airport, rang a little after 9 p.m. It was someone from the U.S. Army mortuary affairs team. When mortuary affairs called, it was generally to cover a fallen U.S. Soldier, Airman, Marine, Sailor, defense contractor or other member of the coalition force.
... I had been in the country less than a month and had already done 40 of these, but the event that night warranted deeper reflection. I wrote it in my journal because I was talking to myself about it, and sometimes I needed to talk to myself. We all did.
... At Baghdad International Airport, aircraft taxi, land and take off without lights; the airfield is deliberately kept dark. I responded that night, along with my chaplain assistant, Airman 1st Class Marco Avecilla, to the C-130 Hercules that had just taxied in. As it approached, we could see a dim light emanating from the cargo hold; it was just enough illumination to allow the loadmaster and crew to see their way around inside.
... Air Force honor guard members were assembling; they were Airmen assigned to Camp Sather, who generally worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week, but volunteered to do additional duty as members of the honor guard. They wore the desert cammies for these formations. Underneath the body armor, we were all suffocating from the heat.
... The air expeditionary group deputy commander was out at the aircraft along with the command chief master sergeant. They had already made the walk out from the Glass House, one of only two hardened buildings on Camp Sather. The Glass House once served as a building where Saddam Hussein’s distinguished visitors were greeted, but was now home to the command section. Also at the aircraft were the troops from the ramp section.
... Airman Avencilla and I, along with the others, gathered at the b back of the aircraft to wait. The rear door was raised, and ramps down and in place; we whispered quietly to each other, until, off in the distance we could see the silhouette of mortuary affairs’ five-ton truck approaching.
... The MA team clearly has one of the most stressful, but most sacred duties there as they receive the casualties and prepare them for the first leg of their journey home. The casualties’ families and our nation have every reason to be grateful and proud of the sacred work the MA team does in caring for our fallen comrades.
... Parked just off the nose of the C-130 was a blue Air Force bus.
The ramp supervisor said there were about 30 Marines sitting on it, just waiting to head out. The waited on the bus until all the cargo was loaded onto the aircraft, including the transfer case, the military term for coffin.
It was standard operating procedure.
... The supervisor then went to the Marines to explain what was happening and that as soon as the transfer case was loaded, they would be allowed to board the aircraft.
The Marines wanted to join the honor guard formation for the ceremony.
The supervisor came over and shared their desires.
We looked at one another and without hesitation nodded in unison.
In less than a minute, they assembled with us, helmets, armor and weapons included.
... As the five-ton truck with the case approached the rear of the C-130, we stood at parade rest, forming two lines straight off the ramp directly under the rear of the aircraft. The air crew, as always, stood in formation with us.
We were called to attention.
... The truck’s tailgate was lowered; then with care the MA team pulled the flag-laden transfer case from the back of the vehicle.
At the command “present arms,” the formation rendered a slow ceremonial salute.
... My chaplain assistant and I led the pall bearers up onto the ramps and into the cargo hold of the Hercules.
The only other sound piercing the darkness was the auxiliary power unit under the port wing running the C-130’s systems while it was parked. The detail broke ranks, assembled up the ramps and huddled around the transfer case.
... There we were, under the dim lights with the APU humming, looking at the flag, and thinking about the young Soldier beneath it, lying in rest at our feet. It was crowded, and I invited the troops to gather and close in.
... I gave some preliminary comments as to how this Soldier gave his life earlier that day. I suspected he had slept in a tent last night with his friends and comrades, ate breakfast with them that morning, and didn’t plan to end his day like this, but he was prepared to, as we all were. For some the risk was far greater.
... I said, “Hear the word of the Lord,” and Airman Avecilla read the
23rd Psalm. I then called for a moment of silence, as I always did, and offered a prayer for his family, the people of his hometown and for our nation.
... I prayed for the men and women of his unit who would notice in a striking fashion when his name is no longer called at the next muster.
I prayed for the aircrew that would fly this American home.
I closed by praying for the U.S. Army MA team members who did what few would want to do and even fewer would talk about, and they did it in a sterling manner.
I asked God to bless them.
... After the prayer, and a final salute, the detail was dismissed.
The entire ceremony lasted five minutes.
It is some of the most honorable five minutes I can think of.
I thanked the Marines for participating and they were all thankful for the honor, as all of us always were.
We went to the air crew and wished them a safe journey out of the desert to their next stop, and they were uniquely aware of the most precious cargo they
Were responsible for.
... We had the honor of taking a fallen service member and sending him home to family, friends, loved ones and neighbors. In my prayer, I asked God that when this troops finally arrived home to family and was laid to rest that his hometown and his country wouldn’t soon forget the price paid in the flow of making of history.
... The troop’s only memorial may become a framed picture carefully set on a piano, coffee table or some other shelf, and maybe 20, 30 or 40 years from now, children, grandchildren and other relatives might see an old photograph in a frame of someone in a uniform, and ask who it was.
Someone will then say, “Let me tell you about your uncle, your father or your grandfather,” or whoever it may have been.
There will always be those who remember.
Always.
... It struck me later that night of the uniqueness of that particular occasion.
I reflected on it at length.
That night we had assembled Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, National Guard and reserve members.
It was the total package.
We were all proud to have been a part of the moment.
Whether our uniforms say Air Force, Navy, Army or Marines,
…..they all say “U.S.” -and at the heart of what that means
……..is “us.” One team, one fight.

(Editor’s note: Chaplain Maj. Shane Gaster was deployed to Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, from late May to early September 2004. During the rotation, the chaplain staff - two chaplains and two chaplain assistants - conducted memorial services
For 106 casualties in 111 days.)