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 ...
Recall how we "needed" to see coffins returning when he was CiC? Suddenly, that changed when casualties in Afghanistan increased under Obama.
But Bin Laden gets what amounts to burial with honors at sea.
BTW, whatever happened to that wrong-remains-in-wrong-graves flap at Arlington? Seems that just went quietly away, didn’t it...
I’m guessing that some federal rule/directive/catch-22 prevented them from doing anything else with the ashes at the time.
I am rare to comment but this is a DISGRACE!!!!!! They can in this present day and age identify through DNA Ancient Egyptian Mummies Ancestral Links, and they cannot identify the war remains and just dump them in a landfill?????
If you are so concerned about this, perhaps you should volunteer to work there and see that it is done right.
I fail to see what the incineration as an extra step has to do with it.
Cremation is a combination of incineration with pulverization.
More technically, pyrolytic decomposition and then pulverization of the remaining mineral material into a sand-like consistency. These are the cremains.
The unidentifiable cremains should have been dealt with in a respectful manner such as some have suggested here, being buried in a marked grave in a military cemetery. The burial at sea seems to me also an appropriate final disposition.
A landfill is outrageous. I have to say that this sounds to me like a symptom of the dehumanization of aborted fetal remains that get tossed into the red bag waste stream. That sort of mental process seems to be contaminating the decisions of the folks at Dover AFB.
We dehumanize body parts and eventually we dehumanize the whole body.
Yep, and UP and DOWN the Chain of Command...
THAT includes the CinC! POS
What the hell were they thinking? Just “too much trouble”, apparently - I’ve seen the attitude about other stuff, but not about something this important.
If our government can’t treat the remains of dead US service personnel with respect what can we expect from Obamacare?
Canary...coal mine?
FWIW, my father got full honors, 21 gun salute and echo taps.
Very sad story for our military families ...
Wasn’t it possible for these unidentified body parts to be buried at Arlington, instead of a landfill...
How is the political slant running on it? After watching the “Vietnam” piece of garbage series on public television a number of years ago, I hope it’s fairly even on the coverage.
Your dad received 'three volleys' as part of his funeral honors. It isn't the same thing as a '21 gun salute' but it is stark in the silence of the graveyard.
I stand corrected, and educated. Thanks.
You’re welcome.
So far, I haven’t detected any politics. It’s basically the History Channel’s WWII in HD series, but in Vietnam, showing never-before-seen films from soldiers on the ground, plus their words from letters home. It also intersperses in-the-flesh comments by vets who served there. I thoroughly enjoyed the WWII in HD program. Again, it followed the format of never-before-seen films from soldiers who were there, their words from their letters home, and comments from the men and women who served during WWII. If you haven’t seen the WWII series, I highly recommend it.
Thanks much.
The History Channel does include videos of the biographies of the vets shown in the series.
This link will take you to the page if you're interested:
Thank you...
I have tears in my eyes...and that’s not easy to do.
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