Posted on 12/07/2011 6:39:00 PM PST by bimboeruption
The Air Force dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show.
The landfill dumping was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said. There are no plans, they said, to alert those families now.
The Air Force had maintained that it could not estimate how many troops might have had their remains sent to a landfill. The practice was revealed last month by The Washington Post, which was able to document a single case of a soldier whose partial remains were sent to the King George County landfill in Virginia. The new data, for the first time, show the scope of what has become an embarrassing episode for vaunted Dover Air Base, the main port of entry for America’s war dead.
The landfill disposals were never formally authorized under military policies or regulations. They also were not disclosed to senior Pentagon officials who conducted a high-level review of cremation policies at the Dover mortuary in 2008, records show.
Air Force and Pentagon officials said last month that determining how many remains went to the landfill would require searching through the records of more than 6,300 troops whose remains have passed through the mortuary since 2001.
“It would require a massive effort and time to recall records and research individually,” Jo Ann Rooney, the Pentagon’s acting undersecretary for personnel, wrote in a Nov. 22 letter to Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.).
Holt, who has pressed the Pentagon for answers on behalf of a constituent whose husband was killed in Iraq, accused the Air Force and Defense Department of hiding the truth.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You just dropped the bomb.
This is a disgrace. They could go in a garden or yard. There is no excuse for this. Sickening.
e-mail in July from Trevor Dean, the mortuary director, saying that incinerated remains had been taken to landfills at least since he began working at Dover in 1996. Dean is one of the officials facing discipline for his role in the reported mismanagement at the mortuary.
And our troops get the bottom of the garbage pit at a dump.
Is this nation so far gone that it could be unworthy of the lives that have been sacrificed? Can it celebrate Pearl Harbor one day and put a deceased hero in a garbage disposal the next!?
No words. There are no words.
I don’t know what I am more upset about, the way the Govt. treated the remains or that the families didn’t care enough to take care of the ashes themselves or at least make sure it was done correctly.
While I don’t consider cremation to be the discussion here, it is certainly not my preferred method of burial.
One can, however, desecrate remains that have been burned.
As I recall, many Christians have been burned at the stake. I have confidence that they will not miss the resurrection.
I would never have a problem with it. I don't think we're talking about whole bodies or large pieces of bodies being disrespectfully disposed of. My understanding of the issue is that small parts of bodies were getting mixed together and no one could say where they belonged. Like the blood being washed down the drain, these parts weren't considered significant enough to warrant special treatment. Maybe they ought to have been, but I can't see getting excited about it to the point where we're getting ourselves all worked up.
For my part, I've been through that mortuary and seen how they operate. I can't honestly imagine anyone there deliberately doing anything to disrespect the remains of deceased service members.
Entomb the area in granite, and erect a memorial.
NEVER let this happen again.
They need to have an area at Arlington or somewhere where these remains/ashes can be respectfully interred on an ongoing basis. It’s the least that can be done.
When I first heard about this, I thought, “who the he// are these families?”
Yeah. Who doesn’t make certain that their soldiers remains are cared for properly? I really was shocked at the FAMILIES.
You have a pretty good idea, given the FUBAR situation.
This is both sickening and so very sad.
Our good Lord has sorted it out, but our fallen deserve a proper resting place, not a dump.
That’s been the conversation here this morning between me and DrO. We have been trying to understand!!!
This is sad. It angers me.
I would be shocked to find that it was legal to bury any human remains at a landfill.
I consider it to be an insult to these men, to dispose of them in this manner.
As for small bone fragments that were identified later, I’m not really sure what the best way to dispose of them is. If the service member has already been buried, I’m not sure it would be necessary to fully exhume the grave each time another bone fragment was identified. It does seem to me another dignified way to dispose of those fragments might be honorable too.
Some folks will have to pardon me here if I find it beyond weird that the Washington Post would act as if they gave a damn about any of this. They have exploited the deaths of our troops for decades, for political gain. They have tried to destroy respect for them and our armed services. They have tried to aid the enemy any way they could. For the Washington Post to act like another disrespect for our troops was bad, is beyond hysterical.
I can’t help but think that what upsets the Washington Post staff the most here, is that they didn’t know the precise spot to tell rabid Lefties to go take a piss.
I don’t know as we ever will understand.
Too much of the American military has become a bloated, anti-Christian, career building, social engineering bureacracy. This kind of insensitivity is what you’d expect from the tax department, not Defence. This is what happens once the military leadership becomes more concerned about their stripes than the men they are responsible for leading.
The US “Air Force” has NEVER been too keen on “Tradition” OR “Military Respect”. Dover AFB should be BRACed and ALL US Military “Mortuary Affirs” be Transferred to either FT Gorden, Ft Stewart, or Norfolk Navy Base. The US “Air Force” has proven itself UNTRUSTWORTHY!
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