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ians or soldiers who work on the base.
Take the mayor, James L. Hutchison, who served in the National Guard for six years. He wholeheartedly supports the media ban.
"I think it's extremely important to respect the victims and their families," he said. "I realize there's a story for [the media] to tell, but you need to understand something about this community: We are a military community, and we are a very close-knit community. We have many people who never leave this city upon finishing their service because they love it so much."
John Nelson, 60, who served in the Air Force for 22 years, agrees with the blackout. He says he probably helped return the remains of thousands to Dover during the Vietnam War.
"It was so commonplace it was pathetic," Nelson said at the American Legion hall. The ceremony is "a very private thing," he added, and media access "would compromise the security of the base."
But some in town say the dead soldiers' arrival at Dover - the first time the remains touch American soil upon their return from overseas - should be marked by a ceremony that can be witnessed by all. Their sacrifice for their country is too great to go unnoticed, several said.
"I disagree with the blackout," said Calvin Bryant, a retired Air Force maintenance supervisor who spent eight years at the base. "We have over 500 American citizens who've died. ... I think the public needs to see a little bit more than what they're seeing now."
Kenn Lucas, who spent four years in the Air Force in the 1950s, also believes in more access. "We need to do more here; we need to show more here," he said outside the post office downtown. "We know what's going on over there. We need to know what's happening here."
At the Best Western Hotel near the base, desk clerk Charles Roach, 46, has a different reason for opposing the ban. Roach, who served in the Marines for three years in the late 1970s, recalls the images of remains being returned to Dover during the Vietnam War but says they stirred in him a different response.
"It probably made me more patriotic than anything," said Roach, who enlisted after graduating from high school.
Apart from Dover and other military installations, the Defense Department's media policy is less restrictive. Funerals at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, for example, have been open to the news media if the soldier's kin give permission.
'So Much More Real'
The issue was discussed in an essay this month in U.S. News and World Report written by Jonathan W. Evans, an Army helicopter pilot who regularly flies an Army honor guard into Dover to participate in the dignified transfer.
Evans, who is based in Virginia, said he feels torn about the media access policy. He believes it is important for the American public to understand that "these are people's lives," but also worries about a 24-hour news media constantly replaying the images to the point where the public became desensitized to them.
"What's really hard to wrap your head around is that there's some mother grieving right now," Evans said. "You need to pay respect to the fact that these aren't just five caskets coming home tonight. They're so much more real than that."
Some families who lost a relative overseas disagree with the blackout policy.
"I would've wanted it shown. I would've wanted people to know," said John Gifford, 53, whose 30-year-old son Jonathan, a private in the Marines, was killed March 23 in what he believes was a friendly fire incident in Iraq. An official report on his son's death is pending, he said.
"They should be able to know the truth. There's been too many things covered up since I can remember," said Gifford, who served in the Army for four years, including one in Vietnam.
He said he thinks something better should be done to commemorate those who died.
Carolyn Hutchings, whose son, Marine Pvt. Nolen Ryan Hutchings, 20, was killed the same day and in the
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