Army 'to improve' treatment of fallen soldiers' families - Oct 13, 2005

CNN.com - Army 'to improve' treatment of fallen soldiers' families - Oct 13, 2005: "October 13, 2005; Posted: 10:39 a.m. EDT (14:39 GMT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- After Gay and Fred Eisenhauer 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,' said Eisenhauer, of Pinckneyville, on Wednesday."