Revealed: How Pentagon FAKED repatriation of fallen soldiers for years with phony ceremonies, decommissioned planes and bodies that had spent months in labs

  • The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has handled the identification and repatriation of soldiers from old battle fields for seven years
  • Remains were taken off planes in coffins draped with flags while Taps played and then attendees sang the Star-Spangled Banner, suggesting the fallen soldiers had just been returned
  • The Pentagon now admits that the ceremonies were held on defunct planes after remains had been in a lab for months
  • The ceremonies in a Hawaii base honored POWs and MIAs from Korea, Vietnam, and World War II

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 22:27 EST, 10 October 2013 | UPDATED: 06:33 EST, 11 October 2013

For seven years, the Department of Defense has faked repatriations where military personnel carry honored dead soldiers off of planes as part of their ceremonial return to the U.S.

While the Pentagon insists the coffins indeed contain the remains of MIA soldiers returned to America from foreign wars, it now admits that the Hawaii arrival ceremonies often attended by a tearful audience aren’t actually arrivals at all.

In fact, the coffins are toted out of planes that can no longer even fly, but must be towed onto the runway for the phony ceremonies and the remains have sometimes been back in the country for months.

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Revealed: Repatriation ceremonies at a Hawaii base have been faked for seven years. The Pentagon admits that most remains in the 'arrival ceremonies' had been back in the U.S. for a long time

Revealed: Repatriation ceremonies at a Hawaii base have been faked for seven years. The Pentagon admits that most remains in the 'arrival ceremonies' had been back in the U.S. for a long time

The ceremonies are handled by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, an agency charged with recovering some 83,000 missing service men and women from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Until now, agency has allowed the public to believe that flag-draped boxes pulled from C-17 military planes contained the rediscovered dead from those countries.

But the Pentagon acknowledged to NBC News Wednesday that, in fact, the remains had only just been removed from a lab at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu.

Now, the events will be known as ‘honor ceremonies.’

‘The name changed because they've already arrived, technically,’ Army Staff Sergeant Andrew Smith told NBC.

 
Sham: Ceremonies like the one pictured ahve been revealed as having taken place as long as months after remains were recovered from Korea, Vietnam, and World War II battlefields

Sham: Ceremonies like the one pictured ahve been revealed as having taken place as long as months after remains were recovered from Korea, Vietnam, and World War II battlefields

JPAC identifies around 80 soldiers per year. After their ceremonies — during which buglers play Taps and audience members sing the Star Spangled Banner following a chaplain’s prayer — the remains are returned to the lab.

A military official thanks attendees for ‘welcoming them home’ before they ‘begin the identification process.’

 

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On average, it takes about 11 years and a $1million to identify each of them.

Helping further dupe attendees is the use of an airplane that many believed had actually just flown the remains home.

A plane is towed to where the ceremony will take place prior to doors opening to the public. It is often a plane that can no longer even fly.

Duped? While attendees watched believing the remains had just arrived, they were carted off planes that don't even fly and back to the same labs they were carted out of prior to the ceremony

Duped? While attendees watched believing the remains had just arrived, they were carted off planes that don't even fly and back to the same labs they were carted out of prior to the ceremony

‘Many times, static aircraft are used for the ceremonies, as operational requirements dictate flight schedules and aircraft availability,’ Department of Defense spokesperson, Navy Commander Amy Derrick-Frost told NBC.

Though they defended the practice, military officials took the blame for any misconceptions that have come of the so-called arrival ceremonies.

‘Based on how media announcements and ceremony remarks are currently written, it is understandable how these “arrival” ceremonies might be misinterpreted, leading one to believe the ceremonies are “dignified transfer ceremonies,” which they are not,’ Derrick-Frost.

One ceremony bagpiper told NBC that even he believed the remains were just delivered from abroad.

Weeping attendees would sing and buglers would sound Taps, followed by a chaplain's prayer. Group's were thanked for helping to welcome the men home

Weeping attendees would sing and buglers would sound Taps, followed by a chaplain's prayer. Group's were thanked for helping to welcome the men home

‘It was a very humbling experience for me,’ said bagpiper Alan Miyamura. ‘The thing that I remember most vividly is the silence. ... It meant respect and a feeling that these soldiers are welcomed home.’

Rick Stone who once worked for JPAC said the agency has always known of their deceit.

‘It's an open fraud inside JPAC,’ he said of the bogged down agency. ‘But it's more than just the arrival ceremony. The fraud is really their inability to bring closure to more families. Our noble mission is to go find some of these kids, and this thing is so fouled up we don't even recognize the mission.’

The military stands by the spirit of the ceremonies, however.

Regardless of how or when the remains got to the base, the Pentagon said they ‘reat the remains with the utmost of care, attention, integrity, and above all, honor’ once here.

Costly: After their ceremonies, the average specimen takes around 11 years and $1 million each to identify

Costly: After their ceremonies, the average specimen takes around 11 years and $1 million each to identify

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Living in a 'movie' as usual.

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Yes Bernie I totally agree

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"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory,/ The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori."--Wilfred Owen (WWI)

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This is not really much of a story. I see no disrespect to the fallen here. Quite the opposite. I bet in the UK the government wouldn't spend $1,000,000 per to bring back their war dead.

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With all the anti-American comments you should really think about celebrating July 4th Independence Day because if we hadn't won we'd belong to England oh my! Even with all the comments my friend and my dream vacation is to go to England we love your country and all of you! Please don't hate us when we get there - karenwotton, ocala - usa, 11/10/2013 17:06 But you r country would be in less debt

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Us Brits like the American people, just your government and its secret agencies that disgust us all, just like our government and secret agencies disgust us !

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Can't think of a better way to instil an atmosphere of lies and distrust in a system that pretends and stages a sham for a subject so serious as this.

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With all the anti-American comments you should really think about celebrating July 4th Independence Day because if we hadn't won we'd belong to England oh my! Even with all the comments my friend and my dream vacation is to go to England we love your country and all of you! Please don't hate us when we get there

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It might be a bit stage managed but these warriors ARE being honoured,which is right and proper.God bless them all.

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Sums America up really. Disgusting country.

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America is not disgusting, it just so happens that our politicians have forgotten what it means to be a "public servant" and are more concerned with lining their own pockets than with the betterment of the country. Election time will come and hopefully Americans will start voting for more independent parties. Dems and repubs need to go.

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Don't fret too much Roxy; our politicians are just as bad. Everything they do is fake and the only thing they serve is their own grasping greed.

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There is no end to the lies of the US government. Everything they do is a smokescreen designed to befuddle the mind and dull the senses

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Believe me, it scares the heck out of Americans. Most of us anyway.

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