Caught the tail end of a news item on ABC and went looking for the story on line and this is what I found. Unbelievable that fallen soldiers' remains were treated this way.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-air-force-admits-its-been-dumping-troops-remains-in-landfills-for-years-2011-12
WTF!?!
Part of me is hideously appalled. The other part says "meh, when I'm dead, it won't matter anyway." The worst part is the families, of course.
Don't know why this is suddenly regaining traction. This was reported quite a while ago. Like a year plus ago. A moment of interest, and then everyone went back to sleep.
Maybe, maybe, now something will change. Though being the air farce, I doubt it.
I expect that there are a lot of gold star mom's from desert storm who have questions, and somebody in the previous administration has some answering to do.
Well, I'm old school and that's no way to treat the remains of a young man or woman who has given their life in the service of their country. And to say that it would take too many resources to track down the paper trail after the fact is ludicrous from an organization that spends billions every year on the latest and greatest armaments and tracking gear. At least they've stopped the practice.
I thought it was basically little tiny scraps of people, which is incredibly sad to think about. But my outrage level isn't quite as high knowing that.
Why in the world would anybody rely on the federal govt to take care of their loved one's remains?
I would take them to Arlington and "spill them" all over the place.
I have nothing against my remains being dumped wherever it is cheap, but thats my decision. This is awful.
DeadSkunk wrote: At least they've stopped the practice.
Do you really believe them?
as presented on NPR this morning, after the headline "soldiers' remains dumped in landfill", the story said it was little pieces of soldiers who had already had funerals, and their families signed paperwork to dispose of the remains. those ashes weren't going into arlington, and they weren't going onto anyone's grandma's mantel, so what's the big deal?
In reply to AngryCorvair: If it's little bits, and the majority of the soldier's remains were properly buried,then it's probably not a big deal. The article I linked doesn't indicate that though.
DeadSkunk wrote: In reply to AngryCorvair: If it's little bits, and the majority of the soldier's remains were properly buried,then it's probably not a big deal. The article I linked doesn't indicate that though.
Other reports have clarified that burials were properly conducted after ID of the remains. The article you linked may have been published in haste or influenced to gain more attention.
Still, it would have been far more appropriate to disperse the unidentified remains at Arlington Cemetery with an private ceremony.
I read a similar article several months ago but I do believe it is definitely related. The remains in question were virtually unidentifiable as body parts (mostly tissue) unless DNA tests were conducted on each little miniscule bit which would tie up their forensics ID lab forever. Imagine if DNA ID was available in WWII or other blood and guts wars, they'd still be sorting it all out to this day. They made a judgement call here and I do believe they are correct.
AngryCorvair wrote: so what's the big deal?
Because part of that written agreement was that the remains would be handles with respect and disposed of in a respectable manner.
Dumped in the trash fails to measure up to the promise.
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