Report critical of the U.S. military's treatment its dead

The report criticized the handling of the army with the bodies of the soldiers before being delivered to their families (Reuters - Archive)

The U.S. military admitted that he had lost the remains of soldiers killed in battles or placed with other pieces in the Dover base mortuary, a new issue will affect the image ofthe Ministry of Defense (Pentagon), which lost so far the impact of thousands of soldiers who were buried in Arlington military cemetery.


It seemed the Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, stunned the internal reportprovide a summary at a news conference and said, "Nothing is more sacred than treat our dead with dignity and respect."


The case concerned the morgue at Dover Air Force base in the state of Delaware, east of the country where the transfer to it since 2003, the bodies of more than 6,300 U.S. troopskilled the bulk of them in Iraq and Afghanistan, before handing over their remains to their families.


And denounced the morgue three employees in the spring of 2010, "bad practices" that led to open an internal investigation released yesterday, and noted the report which covered the period between 2008 and 2010 to "flagrant mismanagement" at the morgue officials who inflicted sanctions three of them.


They have been demoted or appointed officials in other jobs because they acted "withoutpremeditated or deliberate", and did not demobilize from the service because the systemmanagement problems facing the morgue "regulatory," said General Schwartz.

Four cases
Investigation and shed light on the four cases in the first of which disappeared in April / April 2009 ankle soldier killed in Afghanistan from the plastic bag was supposed to be presentwhen, as reported by the Washington Post.


Other two cases are linked to the disappearance of human remains found in the wreckage of a plane, "F-15" fell in Afghanistan, killing its pilot and his assistant.


The case, the last element of a Marine killed mine hand made​​, and called up his family, his body was in uniform at his funeral.

Arm amputated
After the explosion and found that the arm were not attached to the body, forced to amputate the morgue staff so they can clothe the body in uniform, and put the armamputated at the bottom of the coffin.


The General Schwartz to display a summary report that the staff of the morgue, "did whatthey had to do" to achieve the family's request, but they should be consulted before a formal amputation of the arm.


The General Schwartz - who said he would take responsibility for these errors - that the attention devoted to the bodies of dead soldiers "beyond doubt the extent of perfection.""We are all keen to treat our dead as if they were our sons, our daughters."


Dover mortuary
But the issue of the Dover morgue confused and Department of Defense after the scandalArlington military cemetery near the prestigious Washington in July 2010.

A report to the Senate at the time that between 4900 and 6600 the tomb has not written itany name, there are some graves lie where persons other than those who wrote their names on them.


And blamed the errors on the automatic management system, and opened several investigations. Arlington Cemetery and includes about 300 thousand shrine dates back tothe bulk of them soldiers, but also political figures like President John F. Kennedy.

 
Source: French