USA. Glen, Mississippi. 2010. Rosie Ricketts wakes up her son Aiden before the viewing of her husband Seth, killed in Afghanistan the previous week. The temporary coffin carrying Seth Ricketts arrived at Dover Air Force Base on March 2. The
bodies of dead soldiers are brought back to Dover and their families are often on hand to attend a brief ceremony as the flag-wrapped cases are removed from the plane and taken to the mortuary. The ban on media coverage of these transfers, in place during the Bush Administration, was lifted in February 2009 when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ruled it was the families’ choice if the press should be allowed to photograph the return of their dead. In general, about half the families consent to coverage.