Search and Recovery

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – Airman 1st Class Ciera Lawson holds a uniform while Senior Airman Agelle Ponsetti, 442nd Force Support Squadron, adjusts the tie, June 20, 2012. Lawson and Ponsetti are preparing the uniform to accompany the deceased remains of a veteran recovered from overseas. Lawson and Ponsetti are on temporary duty working and training in various positions within the mortuary affairs office here. The 442nd Force Support Squadron is part of the 442nd Fighter Wing, an A-10 Thunderbolt II Air Force Reserve unit at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Lauren Padden)

Search and Recovery

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – Airman 1st Class Ciera Lawson, 442nd Force Support Squadron, adjusts the U.S. inisgnia on a uniform which will accompany the deceased remains of a veteran recovered from overseas, June 20, 2012. Lawson is on temporary duty working and training in various positions within the mortuary affairs office. The 442nd FSS is part of the 442nd Fighter Wing, an A-10 Thunderbolt II Reserve unit at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Lauren Padden)

Honoring the fallen: Reservists work in mortuary affairs

Published June 21, 2012
By Senior Airman Wesley Wright
442nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII -- Decades after the Vietnam and Korea conflicts, the mortal remains of our fallen military members continue to be recovered from battlefields across Asia.

Members of the 442nd Services Flight recently deployed here for training and two of those services members, Airman 1st Class Cierra Lawson and Senior Airman Agelle Ponsetti, received training on how to bring home those who gave the ultimate sacrifice with honor and dignity.

Lawson, who has been in the Reserve working at the Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., fitness center for over a year, said the training is much different than her career tasks at home.

"The training is readiness and mortuary, which we normally don't deal with," she said. "We're learning the differences between two very different things."

Lawson said the training she received will broadened her skills and will help her greatly in the future.

Ponsetti, who has been with the 442nd Force Suport Squadron for about three years, usually works lodging back at home station. She said while the training could be very valuable in the future during deployments.

Lawson and Ponsetti worked with the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) while they were here. They were shown how to prepare and place U.S. flags on caskets and how to obtain and assemble appropriate uniforms and decorations, some of which are not readily available in military clothing sales today. Airmen Lawson and Ponsetti made sure the flags and uniforms they assembled were ironed and fit for display.

Ponsetti and Lawson also inventoried kits for use when the readiness team goes out to search for remains and personal effects during an emergency search-and-recovery, such as when an aircraft crashes.