Dignified Transfer

A solemn Dignified Transfer of remains is conducted upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, from the aircraft to a transfer vehicle to honor those who have given their lives in the service of the United States. The vehicle then moves the fallen to the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs.

A dignified transfer is the process by which, upon the return from the theater of operations to the United States, the remains of fallen military members are transferred from the aircraft to a waiting vehicle and then to the Carson Center port mortuary. The dignified transfer is not a ceremony; rather, it is a solemn movement of the transfer case by a carry team of military personnel from the fallen member's respective service. A dignified transfer is conducted for every U.S. military member who dies in the theater of operation while in the service of their country. A senior ranking officer of the fallen member's service presides over each dignified transfer.

The sequence of the dignified transfer starts with the fallen being returned to Dover by the most expedient means possible, which may mean a direct flight from theater, or a flight to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and then to Dover. It is the Department of Defense's policy, and AFMAO's, mission, to return America's fallen to their loved ones as quickly as possible. Once the aircraft lands at Dover, service-specific carry teams remove the transfer cases individually from the aircraft and move them to a waiting mortuary transport vehicle. Once all of the transfer cases have been taken to the transport vehicles, they are then taken to the Carson Center port mortuary.

In March 2009, the U.S. Secretary of Defense announced a change in policy that, upon consent of the family of the deceased, allowed media access to cover dignified transfers. The only dignified transfers that will be open to media coverage, with family approval, are those personnel who die in the line of duty supporting Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

On August 9, 2011, President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, among other leaders, attended the dignified transfer for 38 U.S. and Afghan personnel killed aboard a helicopter shot down in Afghanistan three days earlier.