Police Officer Organizes Honor Guards for Fallen Soldiers at LAX

LOS ANGELES Dec. 16, 2010— -- Since the war on terror began nine years ago, nearly 6,000 troops have been killed in combat or died otherwise in the line of duty. Their flag-draped caskets are transported back home from Iraq or Afghanistan. But what happens to that casket on their final journey to their families, to the airport that signaled coming home?

The Southwest Airlines flight from Austin taxied to the gate at LAX Terminal 1. As the plane's door slowly opened, Officer Thomas Dye of the airport police stood waiting at the jetway entrance. All the passengers remained seated as a man in Army uniform stood and walked to the exit. Dye saluted."The honor guard has been posted," Dye said. "The field stands ready to receive the fallen."

In a ceremony unique to most airports, Officer Dye has single-handedly organized an honor guard for the return of fallen soldiers to Los Angeles International Airport. Since 2004, every flag-draped casket that arrives at the airport is met by Dye and his fellow officers.

"One day it was a situation where we were not at hand for the return of the remains of a fallen soldier," Dye remembered. "It was undignified and it needed our attention."

A catalyst to forming the honor guard came in 2005 when Officer Tommy Scott, an LAX police officer, was killed in the line of duty. "The officers wanted to do something honorable for the department, for him, for the family, in his memory," Dye said. "So we came together, we trained."

Dye taught his fellow officers the protocol of the ceremonial and escort duties, a protocol he learned during 28 years in the U.S. Navy and with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The cargo door of the Southwest plane opened and Dye climbed inside with a folded flag in his arms. Assembled on the tarmac were TSA officers, Army soldiers, Dye's fellow airport police officers, Los Angeles Police Department officers and even a couple of FBI agents. Watching from the side was the family of 1st Sgt. Steven Studebaker, 48, who died at the U.S. Army Garrison in Fort Hood, Texas. Dye appeared again at the cargo door and stepped down to a conveyor belt. Behind him a maintenance man slowly moved a flag-draped casket to the top of the belt.

Without this ceremony, the remains would simply go to the airline's cargo holding area, waiting for pick-up. Since he began nearly seven years ago, Dye said the airlines have been increasingly alert about notifying him when they transport a fallen soldier's remains.