Air Force Officials Disciplined Over Handling of Human Remains

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — Three senior officials at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, sacred ground for the military and the main entry point for the nation’s war dead, knew they had lost body parts of two service members killed in Afghanistan but did nothing to correct sloppy practices at the base mortuary, the Air Force said Tuesday.

An 18-month Air Force investigation said the officials had displayed “gross mismanagement” at the mortuary, the largest in the nation and an increasingly hectic place as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan sent the remains of thousands of American men and women to Dover.

In its own report on Tuesday, the Office of Special Counsel, the agency that handles whistle-blower complaints within the federal government, offered scathing criticism of the Air Force’s handling of the affair and raised questions about the thoroughness of its investigation. Both inquiries were the result of complaints last year from three civilian employees of the Dover Port Mortuary, either embalmers or technicians, who alleged that there had been 14 sometimes gruesome failures at the facility, including one instance when mortuary employees sawed off a dead Marine’s arm without consulting his family.

The three senior officials were disciplined but not fired. Col. Robert H. Edmondson, the former commander of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center, who left his position as part of a regular rotation last year, received a letter of reprimand, effectively ending any further promotions. Trevor Dean, Colonel Edmondson’s former deputy, and Quinton R. Keel, the former mortuary director, both civilians, were demoted within the last two months and moved to lesser jobs at Dover, although not in the mortuary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/us/senior-air-force-officials-disciplined-over-handling-of-human-remains.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

[TwilightGardener]

1. You know, I'm not sure how upset I'd be about this, had this been

my family member. I think I'd be much more devastated over the fact that I'd just lost a loved one, rather than that they couldn't find his ankle bone, or had to do some ugly things to prepare the body for viewing. I just assume that such things happen, in fact. I have handled and moved dead bodies myself, seen them basically dumped on a cart in the morgue, lying every which way inside the body bags by hospital personnel, so maybe this just doesn't shock me. Now, had they been INTENTIONALLY disrespectful and careless, I'd be more disturbed. But these men and women who handle the remains of fellow servicemembers have such an awful and difficult job--especially when the remains must come back in Ziplock bags--ugh.

[peace13]

2. War is ugly and death is a product of war.

Let's stop the wars and the dead bodies will no longer be a problem. I send my respects to the soldiers who gave all. Their suffering was here on earth..an aftermath of our endless wars.