As we approach Veterans Day this is not the type of reports we Veterans would like to see, but many of us understand more then the rest what happens as to Wars of this Country the Soldiers sent and those returning as the Fallen or as Veterans of, as much of the country pays little heed, waving flags only when needed to make them feel good or patriotic!!
Yesterday the reports on the Dover Mortuary, where our returning fallen soldiers remains are brought and prepared for their families for burial in the Communities they are from, started breaking. Tonight the reports are expanding, and as the Army Scandal at Arlington National Cemetery grew so it seems is the Air Force now facing an ever growing scandal as to the treatment of our Fallen Soldiers of these two present conflicts!
This was what was reported yesterday:
November 8, 2011 - Federal investigators said Tuesday they uncovered “gross mismanagement” at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary that cares for America’s war dead after whistleblowers reported horror stories of lost body parts, shoddy inventory controls and lax supervision.
The former mortuary commander and two other senior officials have been disciplined — but not fired — in response to separate investigations conducted by the Air Force Inspector General, the Secretary of the Air Force and the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that also received the whistleblower complaints.
The Office of Special Counsel on Tuesday ripped the Air Force for not taking the allegations more seriously and for not punishing senior mortuary officials more harshly.
Carolyn N. Lerner, the chief of the Office of Special Counsel, criticized the service’s handling of the investigation in a letter to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. Lerner noted what she called “a pattern of the Air Force’s failure to acknowledge culpability for wrongdoing,” saying that it had managed to “stop just short of accepting accountability.”
The grisly findings at Dover echo a similar scandal at another hallowed repository for the military’s dead, Arlington National Cemetery. An Army investigation last year documented cases of misidentified remains at Arlington, dug-up urns that had been dumped in a dirt pile and botched contracts worth millions of dollars. The Army Criminal Investigation Command and the FBI are now conducting a criminal probe there. read more>>>
And just a short while ago I was watching the PBS News Hour and as their last report they had on Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post. As they talked about the reports known he stated that they were just breaking even more of what has been happening at the Mortuary since at least 2003. This is their new updated report posted on their site tonight:
November 9, 6:19 PM - The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of some dead troops’ body parts by burning them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burying the remains at sea.
The Dover mortuary, which is the main point of entry for America’s war dead, sent remains to the landfill from 2003 until 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was typically withheld from the relatives of fallen service members. 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.
Lt. Gen. Darrell G. Jones, the Air Force’s deputy chief for personnel, said the body parts were first cremated, then incinerated, and then taken to a landfill by a military contractor. He could not explain why both cremation and incineration were necessary, but likened the process to disposing of medical waste.
Jones also could not estimate how many body parts were handled in this way. “That was the common practice at the time and since then our practices have improved,” he said.
An Air Force document shows that the landfill was in King George County, Va. Officials with Waste Management Inc., which operates the landfill, said it was kept in the dark about the origin of the ashes. “We were not specifically made aware of that process by the Air Force,” said Lisa Kardell, a spokeswoman for the company. read more>>>
I have been feeling extremely on the Down since this all started breaking yesterday as to the Soldiers who are sent there to serve, They Take This Duty Very Seriously, but obviously once again we see the military leaders and civilian contractors Don't!!
I can imagine there are an awful lot of breaking hearts in the ranks of those soldiers serving now, serving this past decade or having served there at one time in the past!! Watch Air Force Admits 'Gross Mismanagement' of Soldiers' Remains on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
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