Last month Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided to permit the flag-draped caskets of America's war dead to be photographed by news organizations when the fallen return to U.S. soil, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware if the families agreed.

The new policy reverses a ban put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. President Barack Obama asked Gates to review the policy of media coverage.

After receiving permission from family members, Air Force officials planned to open Dover Air Force Base for the media to observe the return of the body of 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Va. Myers was killed April 4 near Helmand province, Afghanistan, after being hit from an improvised explosive device, the Department of Defense said.