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Re: One of the Most Difficult Jobs in the World

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 25, 2003

"The measured words try to soften harsh reality of Navy death

By Tom Bailey Jr.
baileytom@gomemphis.com
February 25, 2003

About 250 times a year, one Navy office in Millington delivers news so bad that people have run from it.

The Casualty Assistance Office delivers both the terrible news to the families of Navy men and women killed or seriously hurt and comforting news about the benefits that follow.

They never know how someone's going to take the news.

"Some react as soon as they see a vehicle pull up with two people getting out in uniform. They know something is terribly wrong and somebody is dead," said Michael Wardlaw, director of the Casualty Assistance/Prisoner of War-Missing in Action Division.

Rick Riden was a casualty assistance officer in the 1980s when he drove to a Kentucky home to tell a mother her son was dead.

"When she realized who we were, she took off down the road," Riden said. "She didn't want us to tell her the news."

The office is part of the Navy Personnel Command at Naval Support Activity Mid-South.

It shifts into overdrive when mass casualties occur, such as the bombing of the USS Cole, the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and the space shuttle Columbia disintegration.

In the event of war with Iraq, it will run 24 hours a day.

But even in peacetime, accidents, illness and other causes kill about 250 active-duty Navy personnel each year.

"The numbers are tough to deal with," case manager Barbara McLellan said. "These are young guys and girls who are just starting out."

Just Monday, Rhode Island authorities identified a sailor as one of 97 people killed in last week's West Warwick nightclub fire.

The office began notifying relatives.

An Iraq war may not be a naval battle, but the Navy would have people in the line of fire, including corpsmen serving with Marines and construction battalions, aviators, and special warfare personnel.

Nine Navy personnel were killed, eight seriously wounded and three were missing in the Persian Gulf War 12 years ago.

The office trains casualty assistance officers to tiptoe into the news, taking care not to be too direct.

"To basically state who they are," Wardlaw said.

"Inform them that there's been a terrible accident.

"Tell them their loved one was involved in the accident.

"Tell them their loved one did not survive the accident.

"That they are dead."

Giving the news in bite-size pieces helps families assimilate the information better, Wardlaw said.

The office helps families with everything from funeral arrangements to ensuring they receive all benefits to which they're entitled.

The Millington office directs seven regional casualty assistance coordinators across the United States, plus ones in Hawaii, Guam and Japan.

Since 1980 the Navy has experienced a mass-casualty incident - 10 or more deaths - about every 22 months.

Wardlaw includes the space shuttle Columbia, even though just three Navy officers were among the seven astronauts killed, because it was such a high-profile event.

Wardlaw, 48, was cleaning gutters on rental property in Bartlett the morning of Feb. 1 when his pager sounded.

In that case, the Casualty Assistance Office played a different role than usual. NASA broke the news to families that everyone with a television suspected - that the astronauts were killed.

The Navy office gathered as much information as it could, and dispatched officers to be with astronauts' families to answer any questions.

Wardlaw had many questions himself his first day as head of the Casualty Assistance Office.

That day was Oct. 12, 2000, when terrorists blew a hole in the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors.

"It was a nightmare," Wardlaw recalled.

The bombing was the first catastrophic event the office worked since moving to Millington from Arlington, Va., in 1998.

"I was in my office about 7:30 in the morning about to get a cup of coffee. One of my colleagues in the casualty shop called and told me there had been a bombing. They didn't know how many dead there were"

Not quite grasping the tragedy's enormity, Wardlaw got his cup of coffee.

"That was the last cup of coffee I had for 18 hours."

His staff worked 24 hours a day the first 10 to 12 days after the Cole was bombed.

The ship's communications were damaged, and information was slow in coming.

Senators, representatives, White House officials and others flooded the office with calls for information.

The office also made travel arrangements for more than 350 family members attending a memorial service in Norfolk, Va.

"We were baptized by fire Oct. 12, 2000," Wardlaw said.

The Casualty Assistance Office was better prepared when a hijacked airliner crashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001, killing 184 people, including 42 Navy personnel.

Wardlaw praises the 28 Navy Reservists who leave their civilian jobs during such emergencies to augment his staff of 14.

In fact, the Navy was the only service that successfully established an Emergency Call Center following the Pentagon attack, Wardlaw said.

The call center has 30 computer stations, telephones and two televisions. During big events, the Navy asks media outlets to broadcast the center's toll-free number.

The Millington call center fielded 15,000 calls in the days following 9/11, Wardlaw said.

The Casualty Assistance Office notified families of 9/11 Pentagon victims and let other families know their loved ones were safe.

"Almost everybody in the casualty staff today has been through the Cole and Pentagon," Wardlaw said. "They are very seasoned."

Copyright 2003 - The Commercial Appeal is an E.W. Scripps Company newspaper. "