tagged w/ War Dead
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CNN...
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General: Ashes from service members' remains went to landfill
From Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent
updated 10:07 PM EST, Wed November 9, 2011
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The mortuary at Dover Air Force Base handles the nation's war dead. Some remains were dumped in landfills, a general says.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The practice was stopped in 2008; ashes from partial remains are now disposed of at sea
An Air Force official emphasizes the remains were 'parts of bone and other DNA material'
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(CNN) -- The ashes of cremated body parts from some of the nation's war dead were dumped in landfills until 2008, unbeknownst to their survivors, an Air Force general acknowledged Wednesday.
The practice was stopped, and remains from cremated body parts now are disposed of at sea, Air Force Chief of Public Affairs Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick said.
The landfill disposal of the ashes was first reported in The Washington Post.
Kodlick issued a statement describing instances prior to 2008 when families had authorized portions of remains to be disposed of. Another Air Force official, speaking on background, emphasized that these situations did not involve bodies but "parts of bone and other DNA material."
Military escorts accompanied the remains to a crematorium near Dover Air Force Base Mortuary, which processes remains of service members killed overseas, the statement said.
After cremation, the ashes were escorted back to Dover, Kodlick said, and then turned over to a contractor "for further incineration and disposition in accordance with medical disposition."
"The common practice was that any residual matter remaining after incineration was disposed of by the contractor in a landfill," Kodlick said.
"We could have done it better," he said.
The Air Force official speaking on background emphasized that families had authorized disposal of those remains, but did not know the ashes would be put in a landfill.
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General: Ashes from service members' remains went to landfill... more
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DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. – The Pentagon's 18-year ban on media covering the return of fallen U.S. service members ended with a solemn ceremony for the arrival of a flag-draped casket of an airman felled in Afghanistan.
After receiving permission from family members, the military opened Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to the media Sunday night for the return of the body of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Va.
The 30-year-old airman was killed April 4 near Helmand province, Afghanistan, when he was hit with an improvised explosive device, the Department of Defense said.
Myers' family was the first to be asked under a new Pentagon policy whether it wished to have media coverage of the arrival of a loved one at the Dover base mortuary, the entry point for service personnel killed overseas. The family agreed, but declined to be interviewed or photographed.
On a cool, clear night under the yellowish haze of floodlights on the tarmac, an eight-member team wearing white gloves and camouflage battle fatigues carried Myers' body off of a military contract Boeing 747 that touched down at 9:19 p.m. after a flight from Ramstein Air Base, Germany.DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. – The Pentagon's 18-year ban on media covering... more
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Thanks to President Obama, the real cost of war, our men and women who have died defended our nation, our way of life, with their very own lives can once again be honored on America's airwaves. The media can once again show images of the coffins of our dead soldiers on America's televisions. This media censorship has gone on for entirely too long. It has been a tool used to keep average Americans desensitized to the tragedy surrounding the loss of our men and women in uniform who valiantly gave their lives to protect our freedoms; to keep them from being outraged from seeing the loss with their own eyes, and kept from any motivations that might cause them to demand an end to the war.
Excerpt from the article....
The media was permitted on Sunday to cover the arrival of a U.S. soldier's coffin at the Pentagon's main mortuary in Delaware late for the first time in 18 years.
A flag-draped coffin bearing the remains of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers arrived at Dover Air Force Base. Myers, 30, of Hopewell, Virginia, was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday by an improvised explosive device, the Pentagon said.
The administration of President Barack Obama relaxed a Pentagon ban on media coverage of returning U.S. war dead in February, giving grieving families the choice of whether to allow cameras at the solemn arrival ceremony.
The ban was imposed in 1991 during the first Gulf War with some exceptions, including the return of Navy seamen killed during the attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000 that killed 17.
Former President George W. Bush imposed a stricter ban during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, sparking criticism that the federal government was hiding the human cost of its military operations.
End of excerpt.... more at the link above.
Do you think that this ban has helped or hindered American democracy? What effect do you think lifting the ban will have on American's perception of the war? Do you think it is respectful to show the coffins of the dead soldiers?Thanks to President Obama, the real cost of war, our men and women who have died... more
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jubal
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added this
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3 years ago
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