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Old 12-08-2011, 07:40 AM
 
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n other words the same administration that sent men and women to die in an unnecessary war in Iraq took their remains and treated the remains like garbage.

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.

“What the hell?” Holt said in a phone interview. “We spent millions, tens of millions, to find any trace of soldiers killed, and they’re concerned about a ‘massive’ effort to go back and pull out the files and find out how many soldiers were disrespected this way?” He added: “They just don’t want to ask questions or look very hard.”

Senior Air Force leaders said there was no intent to deceive. “Absolutely not,” said Lt. Gen. Darrell D. Jones, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for personnel.

This week, after The Post pressed for information contained in the Dover mortuary’s electronic database, the Air Force produced a tally based on those records. It showed that 976 fragments from 274 military personnel were cremated, incinerated and taken to the landfill between 2004 and 2008.

An additional group of 1,762 unidentified remains were collected from the battlefield and disposed of in the same manner, the Air Force said. Those fragments could not undergo DNA testing because they had been badly burned or damaged in explosions. The total number of incinerated fragments dumped in the landfill exceeded 2,700.

A separate federal investigation of the mortuary last month, prompted by whistleblower complaints, uncovered “gross mismanagement” and documented how body parts recovered from bomb blasts stacked up in the morgue’s coolers for months or years before they were identified and disposed of.

Air Force dumped ashes of more troops’ remains in Va. landfill than acknowledged - The Washington Post
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:06 AM
 
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Let's review this a bit: A relatively small country like Israel will take days combing the scene of ANY of it's citizens (including military) death to be certain to have collected any and all remains, blood included, then subject those remains to DNA testing to ascertain identity before those remains are buried with respect.

Compare with this recent development and what you get is the impression a government, through it's senior executives on down through the Pentagon to the senior officers of a military branch that has no connection with the sacrifices of either the personnel or families involved. Is this indemnic across the branches of service?

Merely "signing off" the disposal of these remains to a third party and trusting it would be done in a respectful and honourable fashion is simply indicative of the value placed on their sacrifice by these very levels of administration.

SHAMEFUL in the extreme.

They're still recovering remains of soldiers from WW I in Belgium and France and subjecting those to DNA analysis with living relatives wherever possible to ascertain identities and then honouring them with a service of burial and internment according to relatives decision to repatriate or add to their regiments fallen in communal setting overseas. Compare that with sending them to a landfill site?

Here's a foreigner's opinion on this disclosure: You folks need to beat your administration about the head in the most aggressive manner over this little development. Your country maintains it's honour and respect in a most significant measure through the achievments and sacrifices of it's military men and women and to allow it's fallen to be treated in this fashion is tantamount to treating them as just another commodity to be used and abused in a cavalier fashion without regard in any future political gamesmanship.
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:20 AM
 
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We're only fodder for the military industrial complex, happy December 7th.
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:25 AM
 
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Cheney will get a plot at Arlington while actual combat troops get a garbage bag in some landfill. Bushco's mock patriotism on display.

The mortuary has handled the remains of more than 6,300 troops since 2001...
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:30 AM
 
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Well actually what were they supposed to do with "unidentified" fragments of somebody's body? Mail it to their folks and say hey this might be your kids fingernail? They already have their asses covered no matter though...........

"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."
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:48 AM
 
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I think it's a stretch to blame the Bush Administration for something like this. Bush can't be held responsible for apathy in the Mortuary Affairs section of the Air Force. Besides, these are incinerated body parts. What the hell are you supposed to do with this stuff? Seems to me that a little much is being made of this whole thing although admittedly, i'm not someone that gets into the whole "honor the dead body" thing. It's just a bit too morbid for my taste.

That aside, if this happened under he Obama Administration, the right wingers would be calling for his head, massive resignations of the personnel involved, Congressional Hearings, etc....
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:58 AM
 
Location: CHicago, United States
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Quote:
Originally Posted by desertdetroiter View Post
I think it's a stretch to blame the Bush Administration for something like this. Bush can't be held responsible for apathy in the Mortuary Affairs section of the Air Force. Besides, these are incinerated body parts. What the hell are you supposed to do with this stuff? Seems to me that a little much is being made of this whole thing although admittedly, i'm not someone that gets into the whole "honor the dead body" thing. It's just a bit too morbid for my taste.

That aside, if this happened under he Obama Administration, the right wingers would be calling for his head, massive resignations of the personnel involved, Congressional Hearings, etc....
I don't blame the leaders, Presidents, of the Administrations. Even though I despise the last Bush. And I understand the questions/comments which say what were the mortuary personnel supposed to do with the burned, unidentified remains. What I believe they should have done is handle them with more respect and honor than they're said to have done. Even when these tasks are performed out-of-sight. These were people who made the ultimate sacrifice, on our behalf.
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Old 12-08-2011, 09:05 AM
 
56,989 posts, read 35,116,741 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gomexico View Post
I don't blame the leaders, Presidents, of the Administrations. Even though I despise the last Bush. And I understand the questions/comments which say what were the mortuary personnel supposed to do with the burned, unidentified remains. What I believe they should have done is handle them with more respect and honor than they're said to have done. Even when these tasks are performed out-of-sight. These were people who made the ultimate sacrifice, on our behalf.
How do you handle incinerated body parts with "respect?" I don't know...i just think the whole thing is blown out of proportion.

But like i said, for me personally, when someone is dead, they're dead. I've never been into the whole death industry thing.
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Old 12-08-2011, 09:06 AM
 
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If you go to war often enough (and you do) to have these types of remains on your inventory without seemingly having a unified and identifiable system of honouring them correctly; it would indicate to me someone isn't thinking ahead of the curve here.

This can't be a new thing and somewhere there is an officer in the system that's shaking his head with disgust at this little disclosure.

Why would it not be feasible to have a designated plot of sanctified-by-all-religions land somewhere appropriate to consign these remains in a communal setting? A once a year service could be held to commit these remains in a manner befitting the sacrifice made.

Relatives would then be free to live the rest of their days knowing their family member had been treated with the respect due.
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Old 12-08-2011, 09:15 AM
 
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Common sense would seem to dictate what you said brusan. Put the remains in a memorial at Arlington or somewhere. However our government doesn't use common sense very often and this is just another case. Probably some private who was driving the truck to the dump will eventually get the blame.
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