Murray: Photo of flag-draped coffins costs woman her job

The photo, taken inside a cargo plane at Kuwait International Airport and published in the Seattle Times, violates a Pentagon policy.

04.22.04

Last Sunday a newspaper in Seattle, Washington, published a rare photograph of soldiers' coffins, each of them containing the body of an American who had died in Iraq.

The coffins, each draped with the Stars and Stripes, had been loaded into the back of a cargo aircraft for a final journey to the US, where they would be buried. There were at least 18 of them in the picture, which was taken by a 50-year-old civilian contractor.

The photograph was published, then quickly made the rounds on the Internet. Military officials were upset because it violated their policy, in place since 1991, banning the media from taking pictures of caskets bearing fallen soldiers.

So the contractor that employs Silicio, Maytag Aircraft, fired her and her husband and co-worker, David Landry.

My hero of the day is Tami Silicio, a 50-year-old cargo worker based in Kuwait who took a beautiful photograph of more than 20 flag-draped coffins being loaded onto a cargo plane … and then lost her job because of it.

Earlier this month - which has been one of the deadliest for coalition soldiers - Ms Silicio decided to photograph the coffins. She asked a friend, Amy Katz, to forward the image to her local newspaper, The Seattle Times.

Ms Katz said she was "amazed" when she saw the photo. "I immediately picked up the telephone and because [Ms Silicio] is from Washington state, I called The Seattle Times," she said. "Tami wanted to share the image with the American people."

The US military generally bans photographs of soldiers' coffins, and few have been published in US newspapers during the war in Iraq. On Wednesday Ms Silicio engaged an agent, who offered her photograph to newspaper outlets for $1400 for one-time, non-exclusive use.

The editor of the Times, Mike Fancher, said in a column this week that he decided to publish the photograph on the front page because it was "undeniably newsworthy". Readers would have "differing reactions to the photo, depending on their views of the war", he said.

The managing editor of The Seattle Times, David Boardman, told the magazine Editor & Publisher this week that "we weren't attempting to convey any sort of political message".

He disagreed with the military ban on photographs of coffins, saying: "The Administration cannot tell us what we can and cannot publish."

Ms Katz said that after the picture was published Ms Silicio was "called into her supervisor's office and severely reprimanded. She explained why she did it, but they sacked her and her husband [David Landry] too". She said Ms Silicio "really wanted mothers of the soldiers to know how the coffins were handled".

William Silva, the president of Maytag Aircraft, was quoted by The Seattle Times as saying the sackings had been for violating US government and company regulations.

A patriotic bunch

The Pentagon says the policy defers to the sensitivities of bereaved families. But it's hard to see how Silicio's picture would be offensive to those families. It's a moving photograph that shows, among other things, how carefully the caskets are cared for while being transported.

Some suspect that the Pentagon's policy is really intended to stop images they fear might undermine support for the war. That's a mistake. First of all, Americans, whether you support the war in Iraq or not, are a patriotic bunch. Seeing coffins draped in American flags may make some question the war's purpose; but it will make others swell with pride at the courage of Americans willing to give their lives in the name of freedom.

What’s harder to be proud of is a policy designed to keep such information and images from public view.

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