Retiring Md. Officer who Arranged Airport Dignified Transfers Honored

A longtime police officer is being honored upon his retirement from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, where he heads a special post tasked with setting up ceremonies honoring the fallen as they travel to their final resting place.

MDTA Police Officer Mike Dunn is retiring from his position at BWI Marshall Airport, where over the past eight years he's arranged dignified transfers — the ceremonial loading of U.S. service members' remains onto passenger planes en route to their final funeral arrangements.

He was honored at the Memorial Day celebration at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium on Monday. Other Anne Arundel residents honored this year were U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Sarah F. Burns, of Severna Park, who was among crew members killed during an Aug. 31 helicopter crash during a Navy training mission off the coast of San Diego, as well as U.S. Navy Lt. junior grade and Naval Academy graduate Aaron P. Fowler who died on April 17 during military training at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

The ceremony started at 10 a.m. Monday. Alan Walden, of the American Flag Foundation, Inc. and Patriots of Fort McHenry delivered the keynote address and will host the ceremony.

The transfer ceremonies are mostly held for fallen service members, including those who die overseas, during training domestically or if their remains are identified years after their death.

At his Pasadena home, Dunn said the process of making the arrangements was straightforward, but noted the ceremonies were emotionally intense — describing bittersweet moments where families were reunited with their loved one on the tarmac after years of waiting for them to come home.

Recently, he arranged a dignified transfer for a woman whose father's remains were recently identified decades after he died in World War II. He had been killed just before his daughter's birth in 1944.

"It's the fact that she, for the first time, was able to embrace her dad," Dunn said. Up close, he heard her say, "Welcome home, dad."

"The fact that she was able to finally do this in her seventies, that was like, wow," he said.

Dunn recalled another touching transfer years ago, when the sister of a sailor who had been killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor brought her brother home after his remains were identified. She carried a greeting card that her brother had sent her in 1941, postmarked on Dec. 7, the day of the attack.

He said it was touching to see her face when she touched that casket and to see how close she held the greeting card next to her.

The airport is a preferred spot for dignified transfers. The military branches lean towards BWI because of the airport's proximity to Arlington National Cemetery, as well as "the way we do it," Dunn said.

"We permit the family to drive onto the tarmac with us. The military comes on; they can bring family members to welcome them home," he said, also noting that the airport allows video companies onto the tarmac to stream the transfer ceremonies to families who are unable to make it to Maryland.

Since he started the process in 2014, Dunn has arranged more than 140 dignified transfers. He said the ceremonies are largely the work of the " BWI Airport family" working together to make the event special. He called the arrangements a "family affair" between airport staff, airlines, the military and the families of the deceased.

Usually, the ceremonies include an announcement in the terminal prepared by Dunn, an honor guard, a fire crew presenting an arch of water over the plane, and other military and airport officials present to pay respects as the casket is loaded onto or off of the plane. After his retirement, Dunn plans to continue volunteering in honor guards which assist in the ceremonies.

"I just put it all together," he said. "It's an honor and a privilege, it means so much to the family."

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