By Daryl Lang

The Department of Defense would be required to grant journalists access to ceremonies honoring fallen military personnel under a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The legislation is significant because it would, for the first time since Vietnam, let photojournalists capture the powerful images of flag-draped caskets arriving on American soil during wartime.

This week the bill won the endorsement of the National Press Photographers Association.

The Fallen Hero Commemoration Act, or H.R. 6662, was introduced July 30 by Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.), a member of the House Committee on Armed Services.

The bill states: "The Secretary of Defense shall grant access to accredited members of the media at military commemoration ceremonies and memorial services conducted by the Armed Forces for members of the Armed Forces who have died on active duty and when the remains of members of the Armed Forces arrive at military installations in the United States." It was referred to the Committee on Armed Services.

Jones voted to authorize the Iraq war, but he later supported a timetable to withdrawal troops and opposed the troop surge in 2007. Jones has spoken frequently in support of veterans' interests and displays a poster outside his office showing the photos of fallen service members from the Marine base in his district, according to his Web site.

His bill has six co-sponsors: Rep Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.), Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) and Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.).

The NPPA said in a letter this week that it supports the legislation. "We are painfully aware that the Department of Defense currently prohibits media coverage of these somber ceremonies, which in turn bars the public from those images as well," wrote NPPA president Bob Carey in a letter to Jones.

Photographs of returning military dead were permitted during Vietnam, but a ban was instated during the 1991 Gulf War, according to Jones' office. The military has granted exceptions on rare occasions, such as the 1996 return of the bodies of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and other Americans killed in a plane crash in Croatia.

But since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the Defense Department has specifically prohibited photographs of returning war dead. A policy updated in 2003 states: "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning or departing from Ramstein Air Base or Dover Air Force Base." Military officials have defended the rule by saying it is in place out of respect to service members and their loved ones.

In the five years of the Iraq war, during which more than 4,100 U.S. troops have died, photos of military caskets have leaked out on at least three occasions.

In 2004, a defense contractor named Tami Silicio snapped a photo of flag-draped coffins at the Kuwait International Airport and provided it to The Seattle Times, which published the picture on its front page.

Also in 2004, Russ Kick of the The Memory Hole Web site published more than 300 photos of returning war dead he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which the Pentagon later said was granted by mistake.

In 2005, University of Delaware professor Ralph Begleiter released more than 700 photos by military photographers showing ceremonies honoring returning military dead. Begleiter obtained the images through a FOIA request and a lawsuit.