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Washington Post: Remains Of War Dead Sent To Virginia Landfill

» 28 comments

According to a report in the Washington Post, Virginia’s Dover Air Force Base had, from 2003 until 2008, burnt soldier’s remains, sending the resulting refuse to a nearby King George County landfill.

The base has since abandoned that practice — which had been typically been withheld from family members of the deceased — in favor of burials at sea.

Adds the Post:

The disclosure comes in the aftermath of several federal investigations into mishandling of remains at the mortuary.

Air Force officials acknowledged the practice Wednesday in response to inquiries from The Washington Post. They said the procedure was limited to portions of body parts that were unable to be identified at first or were later recovered from the battlefield, and which family members had indicated could be disposed of by the military.

The landfill’s operators said they were unaware that the ashes sent to them were, in fact, human remains.

Lt. Gen. Darrell G. Jones, deputy chief for personnel for the Air Force, could not offer an estimate of how many people or parts had been disposed of in this way, but added that the practice has since been completely abandoned. “Let me be emphatic,” he clarified, “I think the current procedures are better.”

h/t Washington Post

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  • Anonymous

    Before the partisan tide floods this story, 2 things:
    1) look at the dates this happened.
    2) Whoever had any part in dishonoring our men and women in uniform should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of military law and enjoy the whole Fort Leavenworth experience for a very long time.

  • Tx4Obama

    Just add it to the long list of disgusting disgraceful things that happened under the BUSH administration.  Thank goodness we now have a Democratic president in the White House.  

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, that final scene was cut from “Top Gun”. Too much realism. Support the troops, baby. On to Iran!

  • Anonymous

    What a dumb lib you are:

    “The investigation found the two body parts that went missing were a piece of an ankle belonging to a soldier killed by a bomb in Afghainstan in April 2009.

    The second was a small piece of flesh belonging to an airman who died in plane crash in Afghanistan in July 2009.”


    Among the other findings was a chilling insight into the chaos at Dover including one incident in July 2009 when the remains of two airmen killed in in Afghanistan were brought in.

    One unnamed employee admitted that it was ‘hard to keep track of everything’ and that the medical examiners were ‘messing with the bags a bit’.
    He said: ‘And then they would walk to the back, and then they’d come back and – it was – it was a really hectic day.’

    YOU ARE TRULY A LIB POS!

  • Anonymous

    Dover Air Force Base is in Delaware.
     
    This has nothing to do with what President this happened under,this is about bureaucracy and a lack of supervision or accountability.

    This is a failure within the military not the government.

  • proud2tbagu

    GO TO HELL!

  • proud2tbagu

    Condolences to these brave men’s families.

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    As much as it pains me to agree with you… I applaud your statement!!

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    There’s the insane Tea Bagger I’ve grown use to!!

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    You forgot to call him a pedophile!!

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    Very disturbing and the people responsible should be held accountable!!

  • proud2tbagu

    lol Common ground.

  • Tx4Obama

    Article excerpt says: 2003 to 2008.   
    Obama was not sworn in as president until January 20, 2009.
    —-
    According to a report in the Washington Post,
    Virginia’s Dover Air Force Base had, from 2003 until 2008, burnt
    soldier’s remains, sending the resulting refuse to a nearby King George
    County landfill.

  • Anonymous

    From 2003 until 2008, the ashes of American troops were disposed of in landfills.  That pretty much sums up the Iraq War under George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, doesn’t it?

    Now watch the Republicans defend this horrific act, just as they did when George W. Bush and Richard Cheney were in our White House.

  • Anonymous

    The legacy of George W. Bush

  • Bob

    How many teabaggers do you suppose clicked on this thread, ready to scream, “Obamer hates the trooops!!!! This proves it!!!!” but then saw “2003-2008″ and suddenly had nothing to say?

  • DAman

    You first bitch

  • Ralph

    The biggest problem…. they’re internally inconsistent with their DNA sampling practices.  Our military retains DNA samples from everyone enlisted for use in identifying remains.  However by practice they discard remains instead of identifying them. 

  • Anonymous

    If we really cared about the soldiers there would have a much smaller number of remains to throw on a trash heap.  As long as we have our Starbucks and cheap gasoline no one really cares – we just like to pretend we care.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3VUFTUN5223ITCWO7CHS2CI44A David

    instead of pedophile, lets just go with coach.

  • AliveStillKickin

    This sort of thing happens when you have a liberal negro in charge.

  • One pissed off liberal

    Good point stupid.  I’m Sure GWB called down to dover and said “listen, if you get any misc, unidentified body parts, I want you to incinerate them and then dump them in the local land fill….mkay?

    Thats exactly what he said.

    Now, with that out of the way, care to elaborate on your outrage regarding the current administrations direct involvement with Gun Walker?

  • http://twitter.com/politlady Cavla Johnson

    you have to be the most ignorant SOB I’ve ever seen post on any type of forum. You might as well went ahead and used the other “N” word. No sense in being half a bigot.

  • Anonymous

    I’m certainly no fan of George W Bush although I do have to say I always liked the guy but hated with intensity that dumbass VP of his.  However, let us be clear.  This may have happened under his presidency but surely George didn’t direct these guys to take these body parts or ashes to the landfill anymore than he directed the Arlington cemetery guys to mix up the names/graves.

    This happened.  It doesn’t matter who or what, just that our war heroes were disposed of inappropriately.
    And that is a dirty, rotten shame.

  • Anonymous

    As long as we have a volunteer miltary wherein 1% of Americans protect the other 99% without any sacrifice the part of the 99%, then there won’t be the emotional involvement of the masses.  Certainly not like Vietnam where everyone knew someone who was in Vietnam.  In fact, most of us were related to more than one.  Thanks brother Jim for your service in the United States Marines – Vietnam. Your big sister and a grateful nation will never forget the sacrafice of those 58,000+ who gave their lives.

  • Anonymous

    I had to flag it as inappropriate. I can’t stand hateful, racist people like the republicans who post on here.

  • Alexandra

    We all believe in “Support our Troops” right?  How about supporting them by not throwing them into needless and impossible situations under equipped!  How about that?!?
    Since when did conservatives care if Iraqi’s had “freedom” or not and it being worth a single american life??
    I’m not a neo-con by any measure and I don’t couldn’t care less if Iraq is a democracy or not.

  • Anonymous

    Okay, the media has reported the official story.  Now, how about digging down to find out whether frozen body parts being returned from the front have been sold on the black market, as was the case in the funeral home dismemberment scandal in New York City a few years ago.

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