Air Force dumped hundreds of remains

[ctrlraven]

"Air Force dumped hundreds of remains of dead soldiers from Dover base into landfill"

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/air-force-dumped-hundreds-remains-dead-soliders-dover-base-landfill-report-article-1.988592?localLinksEnabled=fal se



Air Force dumped hundreds of remains of dead soldiers from Dover base into landfill.

Parts of 274 heroes were incinerated and tossed in Va. dump

Hundreds of pieces of dead American soldiers were incinerated by Air Force officials and then dumped in a Virginia landfill, for the first time putting hard numbers on the grisly scandal that has rocked the military's largest mortuary, according to a report.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that at least 976 body parts of 274 U.S. soldiers recovered from war zones abroad were ditched in a Kings County, Va., dump after arriving at Dover Air Base between 2004 and 2008.

In nearly every case, the heroes' families, which had authorized the military to handle the soldiers' remains, had no idea that their loved ones' ashes were unceremoniously trashed, the Post report said.

The Air Force came clean about the practice last month after whistleblowers complained about sloppy work at Dover, the main entry for fallen soldiers coming from battlefields overseas.

But it had refused to reveal how many remains went into the landfill, saying that tallying the parts and trying to match them with the more than 6,300 bodies that have passed through Dover would require "massive effort and time," one Pentagon official said, according to the Post.

The Air Force finally released some numbers to the Washington newspaper this week.

In addition to the remains that were matched up with dead soldiers, 1,762 unidentified remains were thrown into the landfill.

In total, more than 2,700 incinerated body parts were chucked, according to Air Force records - though that number may just be the tip of the iceberg.

One military widow told the Post that a mortuary official told her that the Air Force had been throwing cremated remains in landfills since at least 1996.

The Air Force said it has no plans to tell the families of the soldiers' whose body parts were identified.

The mortuary stopped the landfill dumping in 2008 and began burying unidentified soldiers remains at sea from aboard Navy ships.

[bugsyc]

A total disgrace.Just goes to show the respect that our fallen heros get...who ever is responsible for this travisty should be the next dumped in the dump.makes me want to puke...Get your priorities straight Uncle Sam before your whole world wises up and your whole world falls in on your head...Keep putting up billions to multi millionaires and dump heros in land fields and then wonder why the citizenry think politicos are crooks,low lifes,pedophiles,thieves and all that other good stuff.and oh yea,keep arresting the wall street sit inners...peacefull protest gets you a face full of pepper spray and a beating...And yes,I am intitled to say all of that....bugsy

[-Matt-]

As a Active Air Force member that no only served in Dover but served 2 years as a Dover AFB Honor Guard member and working hand in hand with Dover's port mortuary I can say with total and up most honesty that Dover handles all remains very honorably. From the FOL to Germany to Dover and finally home, they have taken HUGE strides in the honorable travel and care of the HR's (Honorable Remains) In fact just a few years ago the DOD contracted a Multimillion dollar deal with a private jet company so the remains would be sent home from Dover in private jets because families complained of them getting shipped in cargo planes. The American people need to realize that Dover gets between 1-over 100 remains a DAY going through there. Notice i say remains, because not all of the fallen that come in are all there. The overwhelming responsibility that Dover's mortuary takes on is incredible. EVERYONE killed in war goes through one place and one place only and that's Dover's mortuary. I say all of that to say this. Not all remains can be placed to a person. When a truck full of soldiers gets blown up they do the best that they can in the field and they do the best that they can at Dover to get it all sorted out right, but it cant be perfect. Seeing as the pieces were incinerated its not that actual body parts were discarded, just that additional waste was disposed of. I hope the public never feels as though these HR's are ever at any time treated dis-honorable, because that is just not the case.

[jwibbity]

holy ****** balls, myself being a marine find this ******ing disgusting, A LANDFILL?!?!?!? Really?!?!?!?

[CNGInterceptor]

Reading this makes me sick to my stomach. Disgusting. The people responsible need to be JAILED.

[ctrlraven]

Seeing as the pieces were incinerated its not that actual body parts were discarded, just that additional waste was disposed of. I hope the public never feels as though these HR's are ever at any time treated dis-honorable, because that is just not the case.
Uh what? What do you think the pieces are of???? They are actual body parts or parts of parts.

A landfill to me is a dishonorable place to leave any bits or parts of someones remains. The only honorable place I would say is at sea since they would not store them anywhere.

[-Matt-]

Uh what? What do you think the pieces are of???? They are actual body parts or parts of parts.

A landfill to me is a dishonorable place to leave any bits or parts of someones remains. The only honorable place I would say is at sea since they would not store them anywhere.

Well they did, in 08. Where would you like to dispose of them? A mass grave in a VA cemetery or something? They say landfill but what they didnt say was that it was at a medical remains site, not the local dump.

[guspech750]

I can't believe some Pentagon jagbags would actually come out and say something about the massive amount of effort and time it would take to tally or identify the fallen.

WTF. That person just gave their life for those worthless people in the Pentagon and where ever else they are hiding to have a job, see their friends and families and live a good life but not try and make a 150% effort to give families of the fallen some closure.
I understand that not all can be identified. But tell that to the families of the discarded when not enough effort was given.


---
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Eaton Swap + 4.10's = Wreeeeeeeeeedom!!

[MyTMerc]

Hard to explain this one away. Somebody had to make concious decision to do this. Shameful.

[Bluerauder]

Hard to explain this one away. Somebody had to make concious decision to do this. Shameful.


I agree. The investigation continues. Several supervisors have already been sacked and lost their jobs. Maybe more serious consequences remain. This is a DoD-wide embarrassment and not just an Air Force problem. Let's hope they do the right thing. Discarded parts??? Landfill for Medical waste? Gimmee a break.

[Mr. Man]

This article written by the NY Daily news, which by the way is one step up from toilet paper, has an agenda and by the reaction given here seem to have hit the mark. Maybe the article is true but using words like dumped and unceremoniously thrown away are words used to provoke a specific response.

I didn't read anywhere about if all these parts were found all at the same time or perhaps like at the World Trade Center there are parts found after the fact. All military personnel to the best of my knowledge have their DNA on file so identifying parts shouldn't be much of a problem, this is where my question comes in ... Let's say a soldier dies after he is blown up and the Army sends all the pieces they can find home and he is buried by his family. Then 6 months later a patrol finds a shoe with a foot in it. They take said foot back to base and it is sent to Dover. Now it seems to me it can be identified by DNA. Then what? Does the Army call the family and reopen all the hurt and sad feelings again? Do the families need to dig up the grave to add said foot? Families need to heal and reopening the wound seems cruel to me.

I understand where the anger you guys are talking about comes from. These soldiers gave the ultimate price for their country and the least their country can do is give them a proper burial but what do you do if they have already been buried?

I don't know maybe some General at Dover is just a big douche and needs to be fired for his callousness.

To me this story has been written specifically to inflame the masses w/o regard to the whole story much like the stories we have been reading about the police here recently.

I'm just asking questions not trying to make anybody mad.

[MM2004]

This article written by the NY Daily news, which by the way is one step up from toilet paper, has an agenda and by the reaction given here seem to have hit the mark. Maybe the article is true but using words like dumped and unceremoniously thrown away are words used to provoke a specific response.

I didn't read anywhere about if all these parts were found all at the same time or perhaps like at the World Trade Center there are parts found after the fact. All military personnel to the best of my knowledge have their DNA on file so identifying parts shouldn't be much of a problem, this is where my question comes in ... Let's say a soldier dies after he is blown up and the Army sends all the pieces they can find home and he is buried by his family. Then 6 months later a patrol finds a shoe with a foot in it. They take said foot back to base and it is sent to Dover. Now it seems to me it can be identified by DNA. Then what? Does the Army call the family and reopen all the hurt and sad feelings again? Do the families need to dig up the grave to add said foot? Families need to heal and reopening the wound seems cruel to me.

I understand where the anger you guys are talking about comes from. These soldiers gave the ultimate price for their country and the least their country can do is give them a proper burial but what do you do if they have already been buried?

I don't know maybe some General at Dover is just a big douche and needs to be fired for his callousness.

To me this story has been written specifically to inflame the masses w/o regard to the whole story much like the stories we have been reading about the police here recently.

I'm just asking questions not trying to make anybody mad.

Eric,

I agree with you 100%! And you bring up very good points to ponder over.

The verbage is callous by nature. And inflammatory.

Not defending anyone or any side, but do find this hard to believe.

Although anything is possible.

I do hope this is proven wrong.

Mike.

[-Matt-]

This article written by the NY Daily news, which by the way is one step up from toilet paper, has an agenda and by the reaction given here seem to have hit the mark. Maybe the article is true but using words like dumped and unceremoniously thrown away are words used to provoke a specific response.

I didn't read anywhere about if all these parts were found all at the same time or perhaps like at the World Trade Center there are parts found after the fact. All military personnel to the best of my knowledge have their DNA on file so identifying parts shouldn't be much of a problem, this is where my question comes in ... Let's say a soldier dies after he is blown up and the Army sends all the pieces they can find home and he is buried by his family. Then 6 months later a patrol finds a shoe with a foot in it. They take said foot back to base and it is sent to Dover. Now it seems to me it can be identified by DNA. Then what? Does the Army call the family and reopen all the hurt and sad feelings again? Do the families need to dig up the grave to add said foot? Families need to heal and reopening the wound seems cruel to me.

I understand where the anger you guys are talking about comes from. These soldiers gave the ultimate price for their country and the least their country can do is give them a proper burial but what do you do if they have already been buried?

I don't know maybe some General at Dover is just a big douche and needs to be fired for his callousness.

To me this story has been written specifically to inflame the masses w/o regard to the whole story much like the stories we have been reading about the police here recently.

I'm just asking questions not trying to make anybody mad.


Yes thank you.

Also there is not a general in charge of Dover, only a Col.

But let it be known that Dover's Port Mortuary isn't only ran by Air Force but is a mixed service situation that is run by lots of high ranking Army, Marines, etc as well as a strong Civilian work force. (Doctors, nurses, investigators, etc) To put blame on one service is a lack of knowledge from the author of this article.

As a 2 year Honor Guard member from Dover i can tell you first hand, the job we did, and the job the Port Mort does is not easy, on the body, the mind or the soul. Ive picked up and transferred many flag d***** caskets from plane to hearse and have carried the heavy ones you can tell still have their body armor on and i have carried the light ones with remains only, many they probably wont be able to match to anyone. We transferred Active, Reserve, Guard, Civilians, Astronauts, Etc. honorably every time. Ive spent lots of time in the port mort and the honor in how they treat the remains continue on through there. I'm sure some of this article is true, but I'm also certain that much of this article is grossly written and that more concrete information needs to be brought to light.




Edit... stupid forum wont let me spell d-r-a-p-e-d because it says ***** in it? sigh

[Vortex]

The real point here is that any idiot would realize you don't take partial remains of US servicemen killed in combat, identified or not, and send them to a contractor knowing they would be dumped in a landfill. All of these remains could have been buried at sea by any US Navy ship at very little or no cost to the government and with all the respect these remains were due. I am disgusted by whomever authorized and carried out this practice and hope they are named in the press and terminated from either the military and/or civil service. They are too dumb to be government employees in any possible position.

[Flynlow]

The real point here is that any idiot would realize you don't take partial remains of US servicemen killed in combat, identified or not, and send them to a contractor knowing they would be dumped in a landfill. All of these remains could have been buried at sea by any US Navy ship at very little or no cost to the government and with all the respect these remains were due. I am disgusted by whomever authorized and carried out this practice and hope they are named in the press and terminated from either the military and/or civil service. They are too dumb to be government employees in any possible position.

I have to agree. There is no reason why in the first place they couldn't of just done burial at sea. Very little to no cost that way. Glad that in 2008 they DID finally wise up and start doing that. I do not look down on our Nations Military for this action. This was the action of one or a few idiots that were getting paid way to much considering the callous decisions they were making. A sign that everything within our Government needs more monitoring to make sure right choices are made. They really need some "average Joes" monitoring Government to "assist" in making better decisions. Not people that live in multi million dollar homes with million dollar vacation homes. Need people more in touch with "average society".

[bolsen]

This article written by the NY Daily news, which by the way is one step up from toilet paper, has an agenda and by the reaction given here seem to have hit the mark. Maybe the article is true but using words like dumped and unceremoniously thrown away are words used to provoke a specific response.

I didn't read anywhere about if all these parts were found all at the same time or perhaps like at the World Trade Center there are parts found after the fact. All military personnel to the best of my knowledge have their DNA on file so identifying parts shouldn't be much of a problem, this is where my question comes in ... Let's say a soldier dies after he is blown up and the Army sends all the pieces they can find home and he is buried by his family. Then 6 months later a patrol finds a shoe with a foot in it. They take said foot back to base and it is sent to Dover. Now it seems to me it can be identified by DNA. Then what? Does the Army call the family and reopen all the hurt and sad feelings again? Do the families need to dig up the grave to add said foot? Families need to heal and reopening the wound seems cruel to me.

I understand where the anger you guys are talking about comes from. These soldiers gave the ultimate price for their country and the least their country can do is give them a proper burial but what do you do if they have already been buried?

I don't know maybe some General at Dover is just a big douche and needs to be fired for his callousness.

To me this story has been written specifically to inflame the masses w/o regard to the whole story much like the stories we have been reading about the police here recently.

I'm just asking questions not trying to make anybody mad.
This 100%!!

[BODYMAN]

Whatever the truth may be. I just have always felt to our higher up's were just a number I think allot of things that have been done to veterans or late veterans families are a disgrace. Look how alot of vietnam vets families were treated in the 80's when thousands starting falling ill from anything from cancer to Parkinson,MS all related to overexposure to chemicals. Very Sad