Flag-Draped Caskets and Honoring the Fallen - An Interview with Tami Silicio

Interview available for publication: Q&A style interview with Tami Silicio, the contract worker in who took the photo in Kuwait of flag-draped caskets in the hold of a U.S. cargo plan. The photo and the controversy have made headlines across the U.S. and abroad.

SEATTLE, WA October 28, 2004 -- The photo that made headlines around the world a striking image of caskets draped with American flags in the hold of a U.S. cargo plane is available as an accompanying visual for a recent interview with Tami Silicio, the overseas contract worker who took the photo. Tami has been interviewed many times about her wrongful termination from Maytag Aircraft, a firing directed by the Pentagon. The photograph, her termination, the violation of her First Amendment rights, and the resulting media attention have made for wide-reaching, controversial debates about the Pentagons ban on publication of photos of U.S. soldiers coffins en route to the U.S. from wars and conflicts abroad.

For the first time, Ms. Silicio offers a first-hand account of the circumstances surrounding the photo, her feelings about the image itself, and the resulting furor. She talks about what she hopes the photo can help bring to America: awareness, peace, and unity. A question-and-answer style interview is available to select publications by request, along with a JPEG file of the original photo and a photo of Tami Silicio.

Real Change News, Seattles newspaper of the poor and homeless, will run a version of the Silicio interview and a reprint of the photo in its October 28, 2004 issue. Employing more than 200 street vendors (many of whom are veterans), Real Change provides income opportunities to poor and homeless people through publication and street sales of a biweekly newspaper, while taking action to end homelessness and poverty. The community can make an immediate difference in a homeless persons life simply by purchasing a paper. Single issues of the Tami Silicio interview will be available October 28 through November 10 for $1 from street vendors throughout the Seattle area and King County (Washington state, USA) and can also be requested by calling the Real Change News office at 206-441-3247. Subscriptions ($25/year) to Real Change are available for purchase at http://www.realchangenews.org (click Subscribe) or by calling 206-441-3247.

Below this press release, you will find the shorter, edited version (1,500) of the interview. Requests for publication of this version or the full-length interview (3,500 words) can be made to Joan Pliego at 206-841-3348 (no solicitations please). No part of this interview may be reproduced, in any form, without permission of the copyright owner.

Contact Information:
Joan Pliego
206-841-3348

Tami Silicio Talks about Flag-Draped Caskets and Honoring the Fallen
2004 by Joan Pliego

Tami Silicio is a strong, petite, and warmly charismatic 50-year-old woman with auburn hair and large, deep, dark brown eyes. She laughs often, but shes dead serious when it comes to the war in Iraq. And when she talks about it, she looks you right in the eye. She opened the eyes and hearts of the nation with her jaw-dropping overnight digital image of respect and despair.

Tami wrote home in a quick and tired email about her night watching twenty more sent home − twenty American soldiers flag-draped caskets in a 747 cargo plane making a nightly flight from Kuwait. To that email, Tami attached a JPEG file of a photo she took that night. Tamis now-infamous photo and her work as a contractor in Kuwait were featured on the cover of The Seattle Times on Sunday, April 18, 2004. Quickly the photo blazed a path across the Internet and the world. It made local, national and international news, riled the Pentagon, stirred comment from the Bush administration and support from Senator John Kerry, became the topic of term papers at many prestigious schools including West Point, and theres talk that it may be in the running for a Pulitzer Prize. Publication of Tamis photo opened the floodgates. In the following week, dozens of newspapers ran front-page photographs of military coffins − some reprints of Tamis photo, others newly released photos from Dover Air Force Base. None of this was intended. She was just writing home.

Tami Silicio: When you look at the photo, you fill with compassion. You can feel the grief. Thats how I was feeling in my heart when I took the picture. I was thinking about the overwhelming sadness of those irreplaceable lives lost, the true cost of this war. Its about the dignity and respect and care that they are given going home.

Joan Pliego: That was your pure intent, and then it just blew up.

TS: Well, I had no intent. I took the photo to share with my family and my friends. A lot of nights I would journal home about the day.

JP: Your friend, Amy Katz, was on the list that you sent the photo to and she sent it to The Seattle Times.

TS: Yes. I think it was meant to be. I think God had a hand in me taking it. It seems like it was directed to have an impact. It showed the true devastation through the deaths. Not only American lives but, Iraqis lives as well. We are all Gods children.

JP: Your employer in Kuwait, Maytag Aircraft, claimed it was against company regulation to take the photo.

TS: It wasnt against company regulation. You cannot photograph classified information. But it wasnt classified because it was on the plane and you couldnt see the names on the coffins. I had no idea that Pentagon policy banned pictures like this from public view until I was told by The Seattle Times that I could get into trouble for publishing the picture. Maytag just reprimanded me for it going in the paper. Then two days later it came down from the Pentagon to fire me and my husband, who I am now separated from. I worked very hard. I loved my position and what I was doing. I regret my husband losing his job over this because he had nothing to do with the photo being taken or published. When he found out, it was too late and he tried to stop it. He felt publishing it was wrong. And I felt it was right. I felt that if families knew how well their loved ones were being treated on the way home, it would help comfort them.

JP: Do you wish you could go back to a time before you took the photo and have your life just the way it was before?

TS: I think that even if I went back to the day before, I would be put in that position to take the photo again. I think it was one of those things that just had to be. The reality had to get out. A lot of parents are angry. They want their kids out of there. Not only that but theres a shortage on flak vests, or there was then. Parents were sending armor plates to their kids. The Humvees werent bulletproof. They needed to supply them and protect them better. With all our technology today, we could have saved more lives. I had blind faith in my government that they were doing the best that they could for the people. I dont think anyone can have blind faith in whats going on now, especially in Iraq. Either youre for it or youre against it, and it has divided our nation. This administration has divided our nation.

JP: I read you have an interest in humanitarian work.

TS: Yes. I want to be a humanitarian aid worker, helping supply food and clothing to starving people in this world. This is what I dream of and I am working hard to achieve this goal. I want to learn nursing also to work with the poor and suffering. Ive applied to the Gates Foundation. Id also like to work with Amnesty International or find a job as a photographer. Its been really hard since I lost my job. My car is dead. But Im not going to complain. I brought this on myself and I would do it again. If I have to be burned at the stake for doing what I believed was the right thing to do, then go ahead and start the fire. A lot of people would jump in the fire with me. Ive seen so many acts of right since that picture came out. Like the mother who yelled at the president about her sons death, and Nadia McCaffery, who defied Pentagon policy and insisted on the media showing her son coming home, and Bill Mitchell, who has been speaking up about his sons death, and all the people who have candlelight vigils. And the incredibly great veterans from the last wars theyre jumping in the fire and doing their part to help put an end to this war. It makes me proud to be among them.

JP: Your son is joining the Marines soon. How do you feel about that?

TS: I have mixed feelings. It needs to be a war worth fighting. And if my son were to die in Iraq in the service of this country, then I would want it to be known and I would want Americans to stand up with their hands on their hearts and honor him, or just to say a quiet thank you, as I did every night during the loadings if I was on the flight line at the time. I know what its like to lose a son who was just becoming an adult and had dreams for his future. (Tamis son, Richard, died of complications from a brain tumor in 1996 at the age of 19.)

I get all these emails from mothers. Like one mother, Cindy Lou Lee from California. Her son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, died six months ago. Cindy is trying to help others by helping stop this war. Heres what she wrote to me: Let me tell you....the troops over in Iraq who are in harm's way aren't getting enough food, water, or supplies. My son died in an unreinforced Humvee in an ambush by Shiite militia (men not hostile to my son until we invaded and occupied their country!!). My son was regular Army, but I've met families of National Guard and the Army Reserves who had to buy their sons body armor and other supplies. Some units are down to one bottle of water per person per day. The soldiers are not getting enough to eat. My son slept in his Humvee for the last two weeks of his life because he didn't have a cot on Post.

In an email interview Tami gave to a West Point cadet, she wrote:
The bottom line when joining the military is that it really doesnt matter if the war makes a lick of sense. What matters is that our young men and women join the military for their own reasons, like pride in their country and pride in themselves, and this is what makes sense. This is why they join. My own son is going into the Marines for his own purpose and cause. I respect that in him and Im proud of him doing a great thing with his life, as you are. Im proud of you too. And I thank you for serving our country. But our leaders should not put you in unjustifiable harms way.

I say forget the politics of hiding our Fallen Heroes behind a curtain at Dover Air Force Base, and let us honor our children for sacrificing their lives for something they believed they were doing for America and for themselves. It has everything to do with compassion and nothing to do with politics.

Walk in peaceTami Silicio

Byline: Joan Pliego is a writer and editor living in the Seattle area.

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