When the Defense Department was contacted they had no idea why this was going on. Let’s hope this was merely a stupid mistake instead of some bean-counter’s money-saving scheme. Because to think that some families have had to recieve their loved ones from the equivalent of a bodybag baggage claim is pretty heartbreaking.

I wonder if secrecy may have something to do with it – that is, if the Army wanted to keep Spc. Holley’s death and/or the specific circumstances of his death out of the view of the media located in Iraq, so they dispensed with the usual customs on the Iraqi end in order to “sneak” the body out of Iraq without attracting the media’s atttention.

Of course, if secrecy is the reason behind this, it raises a whole new set of questions. Was the Army concerned that the Iraq-based media might learn – and publicize – something about the deaths of Holley and others who got the “commercial freight” treatment that could hamper the war effort or jeopardize other soldiers if the enemy found out? If so, did the Army strike the right balance between protecting its living soldiers and giving its fallen ones the honor that they deserved?