As America withdraws from its longest war, an all-formats AP team tells the wrenching story of a Dover Air Force Base chaplain who received thousands of bodies of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan.
With the end of the war in Afghanistan looming, national writer Matt Sedensky was searching for a compelling way to humanize America’s longest war — and he found it.
Nearly all the American troops killed in the war had their remains returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the military runs a mortuary. Sedensky went about interviewing workers there, searching for the right subject to convey the somber work of identifying, autopsying and preparing the dead for burial. The intensity of the work means many are deployed to do it for just months, and few stay longer than a couple of years. Eventually, though, Sedensky learned of a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, David Sparks, who had been called to active duty on 9/11, assigned to the mortuary, and had been there ever since.
Sparks was a reluctant subject, uneasy about being the focus of any story and reserved in talking about his life in the mortuary. But in a series of multihour phone interviews and over the course of three days shadowing him on base, Sedensky slowly pieced together Sparks’ experience: writing hundreds of prayers for the dead, standing beside their disfigured remains and ministering to their broken families.
Joined by New York video journalist Jessie Wardarski and Washington photographer Carolyn Kaster, the team had access to parts of the base hidden far from public view — the medical examiner’s autopsy suite, the complex where soldiers’ personal possessions are processed, the room where the deceased are dressed in uniform one final time, facilities for the family members of fallen troops and the flight line itself, where Sparks stood aboard or beside aircraft praying for the dead.
Senior Chaplain David Sparks pauses during an interview in the uniform shop of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations center at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021. Dress uniforms are prepared at the shop so a slain service member can be dressed perfectly one last time.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
During a June 21, 2021 interview in the uniform shop of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations center at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Senior Chaplain David Sparks reads one of the prayers he has saved during in the nearly two decades since the 9/11 attacks. Sparks wrote a new prayer for each of the more than 400 dignified transfers he attended over two decades.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Army Capt. Geoffrey C. Mattoon stands among examples of deceased service members’ belongings at the Joint Personal Effects Depot on Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021. The personal effects of deceased service members are processed here as part of the dignified transfer.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Tech Sgt. Ashley Harrell, joined by Senior Airman Myguerson Sainvilus, left, and Senior Airman lyana Green, right, opens the doors of Dover Fisher House at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021. Dover Fisher House provides short-term, on-base lodging to families who travel to Dover Air Force base to witness the dignified transfer of their loved ones.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
A child’s chalk drawing reads “Welcome to the kid’s room,” and “RIP” at Dover Fisher House at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Senior Chaplain David Sparks pauses for a quiet moment at Dover Fisher House at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Jessica Zugzda, chief hospital corpsman, United States Fleet Marine Forces, prepares a dress Navy uniform in the uniform shop of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations center at Dover Air Force Base, Del., July 9, 2021. Dress uniforms are prepared at the shop so a slain service member can be dressed perfectly one last time.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Jessica Zugzda, chief hospital corpsman, United States Fleet Marine Forces, uses a ruler to position a ribbon rack on a dress Navy uniform in the uniform shop of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations center at Dover Air Force Base, Del., July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Jessica Zugzda, chief hospital corpsman, United States Fleet Marine Forces, inspects a mannequin displaying a sample of a dress Navy uniform in the uniform shop of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations center at Dover Air Force Base, Del., July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Samples of dress uniforms are displayed on the wall behind Sgt. 1st Class Nicole McMinamin, army liaison, in the uniform shop of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations center at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Senior Chaplain David Sparks talks with Airman 1st Class Cydney Lee, left, on the flight line at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Senior Chaplain David Sparks pauses for a quiet moment at Dover Fisher House at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
A walk-in cooler stands near the loading dock at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES) facility at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021. The facility is where the remains of deceased service members are processed and autopsies are performed to determine the cause and manner of death.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Gurneys line the walls near the autopsy suite and the dental and fingerprinting stations as an officer for forensic pathology investigations walks through the facility at Dover Air Force Base, Del., July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Cmdr. Bryan J. Platt, left, director of forensic pathology investigations for Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, U.S. Navy, works with Junisiah Clemen, 92M mortuary affairs specialist, U.S. Army, during a training session in the autopsy suite at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System facility at Dover Air Force Base, Del., July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
A training session is conducted in the autopsy suite at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System facility at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Friday, July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Senior Chaplain David Sparks looks at a C-5M Super Galaxy transport plane on the flight line at Dover Air Force Base, Del., June 21, 2021. Aboard or beside aircraft like these, Sparks prayed over the repatriated remains of U.S. service members during the past two decades at the base. “My heart has been torn out so many times,” the 74-year-old says, “I can hardly count.” With the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan he plans to retire this year.
AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
The resulting package, with Sedensky’s expressive prose and affecting visuals by Wardarski and Kaster, generated a strong response. “I’m an Afghan veteran. I’m going to cry tonight thinking about this piece. Thank you for finding David Sparks, for telling his story, and for telling our story,” one reader wrote. An officer in the U.S. Navy tweeted: “This may be the most powerful article that I’ve read this year.”
Others with no ties to the military were likewise hit by the story’s emotional weight. One woman tweeted: “8 a.m. and I’m crying on my LA Times. Thank you for this moving piece.”
For intimate, revealing work that eloquently writes one of the closing chapters of America's 20-year war, the team of Sedensky, Kaster and Wardarski earns this week’s Best of the States award.
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