Posted on 11/09/2011 4:36:45 PM PST by edpc
The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of some dead troops’ body parts by burning them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burying the remains at sea.
The Dover mortuary, which is the main point of entry for America’s war dead, sent remains to the landfill from 2003 until 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was typically withheld from the relatives of fallen service members. The disclosure comes in the aftermath of several federal investigations into mishandling of remains at the mortuary.
Air Force officials acknowledged the practice Wednesday in response to inquiries from The Washington Post. They said the procedure was limited to portions of body parts that were unable to be identified at first or were later recovered from the battlefield, and which family members had indicated could be disposed of by the military
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Two types of teams go to the field, one is a recovery team called RE. The second team is the IE, this team is the Investigative Element.
Based on available data the IE team deploys to the field to conduct investigations, this includes interviewing Vietnamese.
Each night the team leaders calls in their report to Det2.
The report is compiled by the office manager into a message.
The message is reviewed by the operations officer and finally approved by the Det commander. This message is sent to Hawaii, Secy Def and the WH.
Are you with me so far.
Dumpster in a Delaware Landfill...Almost final resting place of Jack Wheeler.
And so, is there is such care and respect given to our fallen why destroy that credibility by doing something so disrespectful as this?
If it is OK why would it have been, why should it have been, hidden? It was hidden because it is clearly wrong. It does not matter the condition of the remains. Treating them with dignity until the final disposition is right and that is well and clearly known. Would it have been too much to dispose of the ashes at sea or something other than a dump?
We have become a Godless and uncaring nation if we allow this to happen and be dismissed just because the remains were treated with care and dignity before they were interred on a trash heap with rotting garbage and dead animals.
Burial at Sea comes with an Honors service. It is a long standing traditional military burial some do request.
Why not a place where the ashes are entombed together? It needs to be nothing fancy..a small plaque..
That would work and should have been policy. I doubt the ones giving disposal permission were told up front a landfill was the final destination of the remaining pieces of loved ones. Again this was not in a nation where battle conditions were taking place but rather on U.S. soil. A few thousand dollars invested in a few small areas for cremation remains and marked as such with proper recognition would have headed off this. This idea or permission for such would have had too have came from someone very high up. I'm talking about someone likely above general in the decision making process.
I didn’t mean to equate burial at sea with being dumped in a landfill. I know that is the way it read...no disrespect meant to anyone desiring to be buried at sea.
I know. I was just explaining the difference.
Yes.
This is shocking.
I'm guessing that was what the incineration step was meant to address. If you're at a dead on what to do with cremated remains, then go ahead and incinerate them to—I guess—destroy any DNA or otherwise-identifiable remains. That puts the ashes at a line-item remove from their source and probably it was mixed in with anything else the USAF had incinerated. The contractors would know only that they were disposing of materials that were incinerated by the USAF and safe for deposit in a landfill.
I can’t even put into words how angry this makes me.
My uncle who was a WWII vet(Navy, USS Idaho, Okinawa, etc..) had such a "canned bugle sendoff"played at his funeral. And the flag that covered his casket looked like a threadbare knockoff from China.
I would think some boy scouts who would be honored to get those who gave all a proper military funeral.
The only positive thing I could say was the attending servicemen did the best they could with what they had.
And the cemetery was a very beautiful setting in the hills of middle Tennessee outside of Nashville(in Dickson County)
One of the IE team leaders called in his report..I was taking the calls. The Ops officer was eating dinner.
The team leader reported a Vietnamese reported he saw a group of POW’s being transported. The date was after all known POW’s were released. I cannot recall the exact date but it was in the 1980’s.
I wrote this down in the log and typed into my computer as part of the message.
The Ops officer returned from dinner, we worked together to complete the message. The det commander wanted the message written in the First person..what ever the heck that meant but the OPS officer was showing how to write this way. Even the det commander corrected the his grammar to be in the first person.
Anyway..he read what I typed from the team leader.
He said. “We cant send this all hell would break loose.”
Are u with me so far.? Want me to continue?
Yes, please.
During this time the Clinton administration wanted to open diplomatic relations with Ha Noi. Many were opposed because of the POW issue.
There were state department personnel and others at the Det. A US Liaison office was to be opened in a few weeks.
Back to the report. The Ops officer said to let him see the report. I showed him. He said to call the team leader to make sure this is his report.
The team leader was an Army captain.
On the phone I asked for verification and if he felt the Vietnamese was credible he said yes. I then told the team leader does he realize its importance. He said yes. He deemed the Vietnamese to be credible.
The Ops officer said I should get dinner. I returned after 20 minutes. The Ops officer was talking to a State department rep in the lobby of the building.
I continued up stairs to continue with the report. The part regarding the POW sighting was deleted.
On another report the bones of one pilot was dried, crushed into small pieces and used to ferment with Vietnamese homemade wine.
The IE team leader asked why..
The Vietnamese farmer said he wanted to be like an American fighter pilot.
One of the most somber funerals I saw & heard {from a distance out of sight to the family involved} was a two bugle service with call and answer. The Buglers were getting hard too come by even in the 80's but you could get an active duty Honor Guard. Really TAPS can be played on a Trumpet and I doubt many would know the difference in the sound.
Yea Boy Scouts could do the service except the Moonbats would go ballistic over then shooting a rifle. Never mind the fact it's blanks. That would be a good badge IMO.
When they say the solders “remains” were cremated, I'm sure people reading this assume the entire body or large appendages were just carelessly disposed of in a disdainful manner.
I would bet what are being disposed of are small, indistinguishable remains. Since the advent of modern warfare with high explosives and incendiaries which may leave very little one that to the naked eye would be recognize as human.
It would take time to identify every small blackened or decayed pieces. How much time should families of the fallen wait to bury their loved ones?
And it is not a recent event. Mangled parts of solders have, at times, been given less than full honor guard treatment. See Ken Burns Civil War documentary where pictures of amputated feet and hands were heaped in a pile behind the building where the surgery was performed. And later thrown in a pit like so much garbage.
I agree on one point. The remains, even if totally unidentifiable, shouldn't spend eternity in a landfill next to soiled diapers and spoiled contents from the back of a refrigerator.
Find a better resting spot for the ashes of our fallen heroes.
There is a group of people, and agencies that work to find forgotten veteran’s remains, and to bury them with honors. Seems that there are many (thousands) unclaimed remains throughout the country, going back decades. This group is called Missing In America Project. I believe that they accept volunteer help and/or donations.
“Were it not for the dates in question, they wouldn’t have investigated the matter.”
Nice dodge Bush bot. This happened on Dubya’s watch. The buck stops with him. Yet another epic failure for “the Decider.”
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