“I have been pondering for the past three hours over what I should write in this card. However, the only things I have come to realize is how there are no words to describe how much I love you, and will miss you. I will also promise you one thing: I will be home. I have a wife and a new baby to take care of, and you guys are my world.”
2nd Lt. James Cathey, from a note he wrote to his wife the day he left for Iraq. He was killed while on duty in Iraq.
The other day I was in borders just thumbing through magazines when I came upon a photograph by Todd Heisler which was part of a series called ‘Final Salute.’ The photograph showed the wife of a soldier who had been killed in Iraq, asleep at the foot of her husband’s casket. It’s a moving picture of love and devotion that earned Heisler the 2006 Pulitzer prize for feature photography.
When I got home I wanted to find the picture and post it here to share with all of you. Some of you will have seen it already I’m sure, but others may not have. But I couldn’t just post the picture with the very little information I knew about it. I needed to put it into context somehow and to that end, I went online and started to try to find some background about the picture, something that would tell the story of the picture as if the picture itself wasn’t already telling enough.
I ended up finding out that the picture was part of a feature, originally published on November 11th last year in the Rocky Mountain News, earned its author, Jim Sheeler, a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Sheeler and photographer Todd Heisler spent most of 2005 with the Marines stationed at Aurora’s Buckley Air Force Base whose job it was to notify families when a soldier was killed in Iraq.
The picture above shows an American Airlines flight arriving at Reno airport at night bringing home the body of 2nd Lt. Jim Cathey. Passengers look out of the windows of the plane at the family of the fallen soldier who are gathered on the tarmac watching Marines climb into the cargo hold of the plane and drape an American flag over the casket. A few hours prior to leaving for Iraq Cathey had written a note to his wife who was carrying the couple’s first child. In it, he wrote, “I will be home.”
“He wasn’t supposed to come home this way,” Said 23-year-old Katherine Cathey as she watched the plane bearing her husband’s body arrive. “Everything that made me happy is on that plane.”
Above: Katherine Cathey sobs as her husband’s flag-draped casket is taken from the plane. She is supported by casualty assistance officer Maj. Steve Beck, who had notified her of her husband’s death some days earlier.
Cathey clung to the casket for several minutes weeping and refusing to move.
Katherine Cathey drapes herself over her husband’s casket at the mortuary before placing some personal items in it. Flowers from their wedding, a bottle of Jim’s favorite perfume, and an ultrasound of their son were some of the things Katherine placed next to 2nd Lt. James Cathey’s remains.
According to the Department of Defense, 2nd Lt. James Cathey was killed in Al Karmah, Iraq, on Aug. 21st (2005). His family was later told by members of his unit that Cathey was killed when a booby-trapped door of an abandoned building he was leading a search of exploded without warning.
In his casket at the mortuary his wife, Katherine, placed a picture of the couple kissing at the top of the casket, above the neck of the uniform. Because of the extent of his injuries Cathey’s body was wrapped in a white shroud and covered with a satin body-length pillow and his dress blue uniform. Katherine bent down and pressed her lips to the picture. “I’m always kissing you, baby,” she whispered.
She placed several other photos of their lives together and around the uniform, as well as a bottle of her perfume, and some dried flowers of her wedding bouquet. The final item was an ultrasound picture of their unborn child. The scan had taken place two days after her husband’s death on a day that Jim was supposed to call so that he too could learn if his baby would be a boy or a girl. In the end, it was a boy, a son who will now bear his absent father’s name. James J. Cathey Jr. After some thought Katherine placed the picture of their son over her husband’s heart.
On the night before her husband’s burial, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket and instead requested to be able to sleep next to her husband one final time. The Marines made up a bed for her then resumed their positions, standing watch over their comrade’s body as per her request.
Before eventually falling asleep Katherine played music on her laptop that reminded her of her husband.
—
Final Salute gallery
Original Rocky Mountain News article print format
Digital Journalist article about Todd Heisler
Follow-up story published in 2007
Rocky Mountain News closes down (2009)
Reporter Jim Sheeler dies at 53 (2021)
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 5:59 am
To put this into perspective it is of course one story of nearly 3000. And I remind you all again that this war is costing the American tax payer 200 million dollars every single day. Lets hope that the dead soldiers and all that money isn’t for nothing in the end.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 5:04 am
That’s heartbreaking.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 5:43 am
I agree with the above comment – this is heartbreaking and only one story of many like it.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Don’t forget to listen to the slideshow narration that I linked to above too. You can hear Katherine Cathy speak for herself.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 10:15 am
(from my blog) …but denial is so comfortable.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 2:04 pm
That tribute is profound, and as C. noted… heartbreaking.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 5:06 pm
i simply have no words…
There was a documentary not too long ago about familes of soliders killed in Iraq and dealing with their death. I think I used a whole box of Kleenex that evening.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I cannot imagine a loss such as hers – to have a husband to return in a casket would be horrible no final words, no hugs or reasurrances. My prayer would be that his sacrfice would not be in vain. I remember the Viet Nam solders coming home to ridicule and rejection…that must not be placed on our soldiers serving in this war – I am sure they feel their lives are serving the country they love.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2006 at 4:47 am
good question, king…i just copied and pasted excerpts from the emails as i received them.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2006 at 6:35 am
I visited The Time Magazine site a few months ago. Stories like these just break my heart. Just seems so senseless. I wish it would just end.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2006 at 5:40 pm
so moving, heartbreaking, thanks for doing the research on this story.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 20, 2006 at 2:56 am
Hi Simon,
Thanks for reading, and for the kind thoughts on the blog. It was definitely one of the most difficult stories I’ve ever written and it means a lot to know that the words continue to resonate. Thanks again,
Jim
Wrote the following comment on Jun 30, 2006 at 10:15 pm
As an active duty Air Force chaplain, but with prior Army Artillery experience, I was profoundly touched by the story and photos. Since 2001, I have placed different pictures in my office to remind me and others of the harsh realities of war, even though my memory serves well enough. However, for me the last picture captured the entire breadth and depth of the war. It will be on my wall until the GWOT is over or I am. Chaplain John Tillery
Wrote the following comment on Jun 30, 2006 at 10:22 pm
I think it is the last picture that won the prize. Indeed that was the picture that moved me the most and inspired me to find out more of the story behind it.
Thanks for dropping by John, and thanks also to the author of the Rocky Mountain news peice itself, Jim Sheeler, for also dropping by.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 17, 2006 at 6:38 am
i remember reading about this a long time ago….its so sad..it still makes me want to cry..
Wrote the following comment on Feb 28, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Sadly The Rocky Mountain News, less than two months away from its 150th anniversary, has been forced to close amid the current global financial turmoil.
The front page of the final edition, which went to print on February 27, 2009, featured a nostalgic reprint of the first edition with an announcement of the closure printed in the center of the page. (Click here to see it.)