Dean Pauses to Reflect on a Brother's Long Trip Home

(EXCERPT) By JODI WILGOREN

ICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii, Nov. 26 — Howard Dean's eyes followed
the flag-draped container on Wednesday as four servicemen slowly
marched it from a mammoth cargo plane past a military color guard onto
the back of a school bus. Dr. Dean did not cry, nor reach for his
mother's hand, but simply swallowed hard, once, during the 15-minute
ceremony.

Inside the aluminum container — military officials were careful not to
call it a coffin — were remains believed to be those of Dr. Dean's
brother Charlie, who disappeared while traveling the Mekong River in
1974 as part of a yearlong adventure tour around the world. And so Dr.
Dean had interrupted his campaign for the Democratic presidential
nomination to come here.

"This is Charlie coming home — that's better than not having
anything," said Dr. Dean, a former governor of Vermont, who has called
his brother's disappearance and death "the most traumatic events of my
life."

"Of course we've known he's been dead for 29 years," Dr. Dean said in
an interview on Tuesday on arriving in Honolulu with his mother,
Andree, and two surviving brothers, Jim and Bill. "But it's still
hard. All the memories come flooding back."

In all there were four coffinlike containers removed from the C-130
cargo jet that had arrived fro...

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Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
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