Worker fired over photo

[desdemona]

some may find the sight of flag draped coffins insensitive and gruesome, personally I feel it's a very moving sight, a tribute to those that paid the ultimate price for our country, and every american should digest the consequences of this war. So to not offend those that might object I didn't post the link to the pictures, but I'm sure you can do a search and find them on the net.

Worker fired over photo of flag-draped coffins

Thursday, April 22, 2004 Posted: 2:20 PM EDT (1820 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins bearing the remains of U.S. soldiers was published on a newspaper's front page was fired by the military contractor that employed her.

Tami Silicio, 50, was fired Wednesday by Maytag Aircraft Corp. after military officials raised "very specific concerns" related to the photograph, said William L. Silva, Maytag president. The photo was taken in Kuwait.

Silva declined to identify the Pentagon's concerns but said Silicio violated company and federal government rules. He declined to comment further.

Silicio said she hoped the photo of the 20 flag-draped coffins awaiting transport from Kuwait to the United States would show the relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq that civilian and military crews return the remains of their loved ones with care and devotion.

"It wasn't my intent to lose my job or become famous or anything," Silicio said.

Silicio's husband and co-worker, David Landry, was also fired, but the company gave no reason for his dismissal.

Under a policy adopted in 1991, the Pentagon bars news organizations from photographing caskets being returned to the United States, saying publication of such photos would be insensitive to bereaved families. Critics say the public is being denied information by not being able to see photos of coffins coming back from Iraq.

Silicio took the photograph in a cargo plane about to depart from Kuwait International Airport earlier this month. She sent the photo to a stateside friend who provided it to The Seattle Times, which then obtained permission from Silicio to publish it without compensation.

The photo appeared in the center of the newspaper's front page in its Sunday's editions, along with an article on the war in Iraq and a feature on Silicio's job in Kuwait. It was then posted on Web sites and has been widely discussed on the Internet.

The Times reported Thursday that its decision to print the photograph was supported in most of the e-mails and telephone calls it has received.

Executive Editor Michael R. Fancher wrote about the decision to print the photograph in his weekly column in Sunday's editions and he appeared Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America" with U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Delaware, who supports the Pentagon ban. Delaware is home to the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where all remains first arrive in the United States from overseas.

"Some will see the picture as an anti-war statement because the image is reminiscent of photos from the Vietnam era" of caskets with casualties arriving in the United States, Fancher wrote, "but that isn't Silicio's or The Times' motivation."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/04/22/coff...o.ap/index.html

Edited April 23, 2004 by desdemona

[Kooperman]

The disgrace of this situation is that the administration hides behind this veil of secrecy for strictly political reasons. Even worse, our leader doesn't even show enough respect for the deceased troops to appear at any funerals.

[desdemona]

you're right kooper, he should be waiting there at dover to receive those soldiers, especially when he believes this is all being done in answer to a higher authority, I've noticed recently his remarks that connect religion to his actions in Iraq are being criticized......huh, then you wonder why arabs hate us.

[DudeAsInCool]

I find Bush's actions to be inexplicable... call me dense if you like, but I just dont get it.

[Guest .::BeatFactory::.]

the pics are readily available at DrudgeReport if you want them...

[Kooperman]

...and here's a story to go along with the Drudge link

http://www.beatking.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4615

[Kooperman]

Friday, April 23, 2004

Family sees photographer as 'mom to fallen boys'

By Rachel Tuinstra

Times Snohomish County bureau

EVERETT — Tami Silicio had warned her sons they might be receiving some phone calls from reporters. But Will Taylor, 21, was still caught off guard yesterday when the phone started ringing at 6 a.m.

It was CNN wanting to interview him about the photograph his mother took of flag-draped coffins on a cargo plane waiting to leave Kuwait — the photograph that got her fired from a job with Maytag Aircraft, a military contractor.

That wake-up call gave Taylor the first inkling of the whirlwind he and his family were in for.

By evening, Taylor was watching himself on network news, and two of his aunts, a grandmother, a cousin and an uncle were on a plane to New York for an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Taylor and the rest of his family say they are not surprised Silicio took the picture — they say they know what it meant to her to help return the U.S. soldiers who had fallen in Iraq to their loved ones.

"I know how she felt about it — she's a mother who has lost a kid," Taylor said from the Everett home he shares with his mother when she is not working abroad. "I don't know if she meant for things to blow up like it has, though."

The picture hasn't dissuaded Taylor from his plan to join the Marines in September.

"I've been planning to go into the Marines for a long time," he said. "I know she (Silicio) will be proud of me for going in."

Tami Silicio's sister Toni Silicio Prebezac, 52, said Tami sometimes sent e-mails about her experiences working in Kuwait.

"(Tami, 50,) said she would say prayers over the coffins. It was like the airplane was a church," said Prebezac, of Edmonds, as she and her family hurriedly prepared to leave for New York. "It was like she was a mom to these fallen boys."

Tami Silicio's oldest son, Richard, died of a brain tumor about six years ago, her family said. In his final days, Tami Silicio brought him home to Everett. She lit candles in the young man's room and played music she knew he would enjoy, said Lisa Silicio, 49, Tami Silicio's sister.

Lisa Silicio said her sister took the job in Kuwait because it was good money and employment was hard to come by.

"It was originally about getting a job," Lisa Silicio said. "But when she got over there, she enjoyed it — she felt like she was doing some good, like she was helping in some way."

Family members said they are proud of Tami Silicio, who has been gone for more than six months, and they look forward to seeing her again.

"This was not done as an anti-war thing," said Leona Silicio, 80, Tami Silicio's mother. "It was done to show families the total respect and honor shown to their sons who are leaving Kuwait."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/loca..._family23m.html

[DudeAsInCool]

— the photograph that got her fired from a job with Maytag Aircraft, a military contractor.

Add this company to ClearChannel, etc. No Maytag applicances for me. I dont do business with un-American companies

[Redneck4sure]

Add this company to ClearChannel, etc. No Maytag applicances for me. I dont do business with un-American companies

The list gets longer and longer. Soon I will be doing business with nobody. Then I will be running naked through the forest eating nuts, berries and whatever I can catch with my bare hands. :(

[slum_goddess]

I find Bush's actions to be inexplicable... call me dense if you like, but I just dont get it.

maybe that's cause you, like many others here, are an intelligent, thoughtful person. personally, i find his actions to be totally hypocritical and possibly verging on the evil (cause i can't figure out whether he knows more than he lets on or he's truly that stupid, in which case, i pity us all). :evil: