No criminal wrongdoing in casket photo case - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

No criminal wrongdoing in casket photo case

Investigators have concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing by the airmen who posed for a picture around an open casket case with another airman inside wearing a noose around his neck and chains across his body.

However, the instructors in charge of the airmen in the picture have received administrative punishment because “their conduct brought discredit both to the military and themselves,” according to a news release from the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.Dated Aug. 23, the photo was taken by airmen with the 345th Training Squadron at Fort Lee, Va., where airmen learn to load and unload aircraft.

The photo was forwarded to Air Force Times late last year, around the time the Air Force was dealing with a scandal surrounding cremated remains of service members being dumped at a landfill.

A soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division told Air Force Times the photo made him worry that he could not trust the Air Force to transport the remains of his fallen comrades.

“I cannot understand the behaviors of the United States Air Force,” Staff Sgt. Elias Bonilla said in December. “I refuse to accept that military personnel could be so far removed from their own identity as a military unit to permit such disgraceful conduct.”

The commander of the 37th Training Group, which has purview over the squadron, ordered an investigation into the incident, which found the picture was not meant as a slight to fallen service members,

“The investigation indicated that the photo was intended by those who took it to remind the students that they could be killed if they failed to pay attention while loading and unloading aircraft,” the 37th Training Wing news release said.

An accompanying caption to the photo, “”Da Dumpt, Da Dumpt …. Sucks 2 Be U,” refers to the sound a cargo pallet makes when it is transferred onto an aircraft, wing spokesman Gerry Proctor said.

“The theme of the photo was based upon a safety warning that the instructor continuously gave to the students, and that is to pay attention to the pallet because those things can have tonnage on them and it can kill you if you’re not paying attention to it,” Proctor said Monday.

The chains worn by the airman in the photo are used to tie a pallet down onto an aircraft, and the rope being used as a noose is a wheel chock, he said.

The picture itself is not an official photo, Proctor said.

“The students picked up on this continual reinforcement of the safety issue when handling these pallets, and their creativity got the best of them in creating this photo,” he said.

Proctor could not say whether any of the students in the photo were disciplined, explaining that is a decision for their individual commanders. Nor would he say what administrative actions have been taken against the airmen in the photo.

“If the actions aren’t criminal and handled administratively, the actions toward individuals and information on the individuals are not releasable,” Proctor said in an email. “I can assure you the commander weighed all the facts and circumstances and came to a decision in the best interests of the squadron, wing and the Air Force. Justice was done.”