From wire reports:

For the first time in 18 years , the military opened up Dover Air Force base in Delaware to the media for the return Sunday night of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers, who was killed in Afghanistan.

 

The U.S. military has upheld a ban on news coverage on the return of their war dead for nearly 20 years. More than 5,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, and have returned to their country via the Dover base.

Myers was from Hopewell, Virginia and died Saturday from wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack.

The 30 year-old was assigned to the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron, with the Royal Air Force Lakenheath, U.K. His widow flew from England to witness his final return to the United States.

An eight-person team wearing camouflage battle fatigues carried Myers’ flag-draped coffin off a Boeing 747 that touched down shortly after 9 p.m. after a flight from Germany.