Ill. leaders ask military to better serve families of soldiers

CHICAGO -- After Gay and Fred Eisenhauer of Pinckneyville, Ill., learned their son had been killed while serving in Iraq in May, the couple traveled to the cargo area at Lambert Airport in St. Louis to get his body.

Army Pfc. Wyatt Eisenhauer's flag-draped coffin was delivered to his parents in a crate-filled area of the airport where workers on break sat nearby smoking cigarettes.

For Gay Eisenhauer, it was an impersonal place to meet her 26-year-old son on his final trip home.

"When we bring them home and we call them heroes, let's treat them like heroes all the way and not pull them into a cargo section and bring them home to the family that way. Let's make them heroes," she said Wednesday.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn have taken up the cause, meeting Wednesday with U.S. Army Secretary Francis Harvey and urging him to improve how the military works with families of those killed in the line of duty.

"To have that reunifying moment in a place like that I think is symbolic of the need to change some of the policy so there's more sensitivity," Blagojevich said.

Some of the suggestions Blagojevich and Quinn made to Harvey included better training for officers who interact with distraught families and prompt delivery of service members' medals and awards to surviving family.

"Mistakes have been made and they need to be corrected immediately," Quinn said. "Our soldiers who have given their lives for our country and the families that raised them deserve not only the gratitude of Americans but the honor of a proper notification of the death of their loved one."

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said the Army has been assessing how to improve the process of notifying families of the deaths of their loved ones. The review is expected to be done in January, he said.

"Our largest concern is to make sure information is conveyed expeditiously and accurately to family members. We're looking at new ways to improve it throughout the Army," he said.

Joan Neal, mother of 21-year-old Army Spc. Wesley Wells of Libertyville, said she has battled the Army for more than a year to get information since her son's September 2004 death in Afghanistan.

The Gurnee woman said the Army also tried to change the date of her son's funeral because the timing of the flight to return her son's body to Illinois was inconvenient. She also said the Army did not arrive at her son's funeral in time to drape the flag over his casket, and the Army gave her a certificate incorrectly listing her son's service in Iraq instead of Afghanistan.

Boyce said he could not address individual family concerns or provide details of Wednesday's meeting.

But Quinn said Harvey acknowledged there was an "unevenness and inconsistency" with how casualty assistance officers notify family members of a death.

According to Quinn, Harvey said the Army would assess the performance of casualty assistance officers and deploy mobile training teams to help the worst performers.

Quinn said Harvey also planned to create a phone number military families can call if they are unhappy with how they were notified of a death.