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Subscribe to RSSThe Air Force confirmed Thursday that unclaimed remains of 274 U.S. service members were disposed of in a Virginia landfill between 2003 and 2008. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops were dumped in a Virginia landfill, according to government records, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Air Force officials said that the dumping was hidden from families who had given authorization for the remains to be disposed of in a respectful and dignified manner, according to the newspaper.
There were no plans to inform families, officials told the newspaper.
New information revealed that the practice, exposed by The Washington Post in November, had become very widespread until it was halted in 2008, the newspaper reported.
Last month, Pentagon and Air Force officials said that figuring out how many remains were sent to the King George County, Va., landfill would take combing through the records of more than 6,300 troops.
Full story in the Washington Post: Air Force dumped more ashes than acknowledged
"It would require a massive effort and time to recall records and research individually," Jo Ann Rooney, the Pentagon's acting undersecretary for personnel, said in a Nov. 22 letter to Rep. Rush Holt (Dem.-N.J.), who has pressured the Pentagon for information on the issue on behalf of one of his constituents, according to the newspaper.
Steve Ruark / AP file
An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of a soldier on Oct. 15, 2011 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
Holt reacted angrily to the news, the newspaper reported.
"What the hell?" he told the Post. "We spent millions, tens of millions, to find any trace of soldiers killed, and they're concerned about a 'massive' effort to go back and pull out the files and find out how many soldiers were disrespected this way?"
"They just don't want to ask questions or look very hard," he added, according to the newspaper.
According to records the military gave The Post, between 2003 and 2008, 976 fragments from 274 personnel were cremated, incinerated and dumped in the landfill. An additional 1,762 remains, which could not be DNA tested because of damage from explosions, were gathered from the battlefield and dumped in a similar manner, the Air Force told the newspaper.
The widow of an Army sergeant killed in Iraq told the newspaper she was furious when she was told how some of her husband's remains were dumped in the landfill.
"They have known that they were doing something disgusting, and they were doing everything they could to keep it from us," Gari-Lynn Smith told the newspaper. She had been pressing the military for information on the subject for four years — ever since she got a report on her husband's autopsy and learned that some of the remains had not been put in the casket for his funeral, according to The Post.
Changes in disposal policies came about after an in-depth review at Dover was ordered in 2008 by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
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Whoever made this call needs to be brought before the JAG and court martialed, period
This cr@p actually makes me ashamed to admit I am an Air Force veteran. That any service member could treat their fellows this way just astounds me. The officers who sanctioned this procedure should all be fired and any NCO who went along with it should be busted down to Airman Basic.
I'd also invalidate their right to be buried in a military cemetary and instead stipulate that the must be dumped in the nearest landfill.
Don't blame this on Obama. Having been halted in 2008 this was done under the noses of King Cheney and his harlequin sidekick Georgie W.
Absolutely disgraceful! What the hell has happened to America?
Obama.. karen that is what has happened and will continue to slide everyday
Munchkin .... this happened between 2003 til 2008 sorry but this ... wasn't Obama's fault .
Munchkin...you should just not say anything. Ever.
They are treating soldiers the dead pets are disposed of. If your pet dies or you have to put them to sleep, if the vet takes care of the body it is a communal cremation. If you aren't going to spend the money to bring your families remains back and bury properly, this is what happens to your pets and unfortunately, this is what happens to dead soldiers. And real estate is expense no where to bury the remains in individual urns or even little metal boxes, so a landfill. I guess we can just build a memorial in VA landfill for the refuse remains of soldiers whose families just wante dthe military "to take care of the bodies/cremation". And to think because a morgue told someone who was taking care of burial of her family member, she was told where the parts that didn't make it might be.
Why are we fighting in War again?????? Are we just culling the population, and disposing of the bodies cheaply. With all the money spent on War, this is what we are worth????
You have to draw the line somewhere. It's a waste of money to pursue this. Someone just wants to sue and money in their pocket won't solve what already happened. I'll bet those poor soldiers would say get over it and move on.
The goverment should be held in contempt,that being said a total disgrace someone needs to be held accountable,wonder who Obama will blame this on...pos
munchkin,
I guess reading is not your strength because this happened during Bush's watch NOT Obama's.
This seems to imply that you DON'T think that someone should be held accountable ... or that you think Obama should be held accountable for this horrible, disrespectful "practice" of dumping military remains in a landfill when it occurred PRIOR to his term of office (during Bush's reign - 2003-2008) ... If so, you clearly have some reading comprehension and factual comprehension issues, and if not, why do you call Obama a "pos" for THIS "disgrace"??
* why do you call Obama - and not Bush - a "pos" for THIS "disgrace"?
At least Bush took accountability and did'nt always point the finger,current president is an empty suit
Bush took accountability???????????
Actual transcript from Press conference April 2004 – AFTER Iraq invasion, and Valerie Plame outing, and no WMD found, and the loss of Habeas Corpus in the Patriot Act, etc.
Question: “After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have
you learned from it?
President Bush: “I wish you had given me this written question ahead of time, so I could I could plan for it. Uh … (8 second silence) … John, I’m sure historians will look back and say, “Gosh, he could have done it better this way or that way” …uh …(5 second silence ) I just uh … you know I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all this pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but I haven’t yet …”
Actually,
I guess Bush didn't see all of these things - or the no bid contracts for Halliburton or the outsourcing of jobs or Blackwater, etc. AS "mistakes" because they all made him and his friends VERY RICH - of course they weren't mistakes in his mind ... and as for accountability - he apparently sees himself only accountable to his "friends" and not to the American people.
Will Bush hold himself accountable for this disgrace of dumping military remains in a LANDFILL that occurred on HIS watch? Doubt it. It would not make him any money. But, will the American people, and the world, hold him accountable. "You bet'cha" ... The annals of history will show what kind of president - and person - this
man was/is.
And again...just don't say anything munchkin. You look foolish.
"The widow of an Army sergeant killed in Iraq told the newspaper she was furious when a morgue she was told how some of her husband's remains were dumped in the landfill." What does that even mean? This is the most infuriating part of the article.
It means just what it says, she was told by the morgue that some of her husbands remains were dumped in a landfill. nothing complicated about it.
"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government"
reads the fourth sentence from our Declaration of Independence.
It is time!
You da man!!
This is outrageous!! My son served 2 tours in Iraq and the very first thing I said to him upon his return home was "Thank you for your service" To have our dead return to be treated like this is simply unbelieveable!! Have any heads rolled because of this?? This needs to be investigated fully to find out WHO decided on this policy of disrespecting our military dead!
wtf. this is not how we honor those fallen soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen. someone needs a good a$$ whooping for this one. what were they thinking.
troops are a dime a dozen
equipment costs millions of dollars, shells and bullets cost thousands of dollars. the U.S. serviceman or woman only cost a dime a dozen. then we get dumped with the rest of the trash. pitiful!
As a retired USAF Chief Master Sergeant, I am disgusted that anyone in the military could be a party to the type of behavior described in the article. Perhaps there is another side to the story. But, as it reads right now, this is just atrocious. Inexcusable.
It's the Air Force. Heck, take the remains on a flight and release them while airborne, then give a map to the family showing where the remains were released. Except back when I was on aircrew it practically took an act of Congress to do just that--honor flights are very difficult to get approved (we would just do them without higher headquarters permission if a family asked). Or maybe give them to the Navy to do from shipboard at sea. Involve the chaplain service to get it done right and with respect.
--mark d.
Well stated Mark
ABSOLUTELY DIS-GUS-TED. My cousin died for your freakin' a-ss.
Bad thing. Exposed without Wikkileaks.
I don't know where to begin...but perhaps where to end it. This is befitting for all the politicians who have systematically destroyed this country with their self-serving ruinous domestic policies, and played Monday morning QB or lazy-boy General and ordered our young men and women into harms' way with our meddlesome foreign policies.
I should never have opened this article...started my day off on a sour note. jeez.
The article said "Fragments" and that they tried to DNA test unidentified remains. This article is misleading a bit I think. What are they supposed to do with partial body parts? Being they are just "parts" then I don't think it's really a huge issue. They need a way to dispose of them and if the remains are cremated and tossed out who cares? Now if they were taking entire corpses of soldiers then this would be a horrible thing. They can't memorialize legs arms and other body parts from soldiers they have no idea where they came from. With the complaints of the woman who found out "PARTS" of her husband were not put in the casket, Would you really think that putting in a mangled leg or arm into a casket without any way of embalming is a realistic thing to do? NO if it's mangled and not recognizable then why would they? PARTS is the key word here and I think a LOT of people are missing the point of this and thinking we're dumping complete bodies. The author needs to emphasize this topic and not make it sound like we're tossing soldiers in the trash when we're done.
SeunFlorida .... Maybe the woman who found out parts of her beloved husband weren't laid to rest is deeply religious, maybe her husband was . As far as what to do with "parts" since they cremate them anyways why not scatter them at Arlington , since it's the Air Force why not scatter them in flight over the country they died protecting ? There are many other options besides a landfill !
Agree that the landfill is a harsh place to dispose of it for sure. Some of the "Parts" They find are nothing more than meat and that is it. Such a horrible thing. With no way to know for sure who it belongs to and in any case with religion they cannot hold any sort of religious ceremony if they don't know what religion the person the "Part" belonged too. I'm not agreeing with the way they are doing it but it's a soft subject because there are so many variables involved especially when it comes to destroyed body parts. We're only spoon fed part of the story. I'm sure as the next few days go by we're going to see a bit more of what is going on and i'm sure the outcry will change the way they handle it to suit as many as possible. Hopefully they won't dump remains into a landfill and maybe figure out a dignified way of disposal but with religion and beliefs being what they are you can only please part of the people part of the time.
Oh please Suen, you honestly think for one minute the military has no idea who these people were? That would imply the military had no idea where any troops were at any given moment. Spare me the excuses. They know WHO was where at what time. If they didn't, and tens of thousands of soldiers are just running all over Iraq and Afghanistan with no one knowing where they are or what they are doing then there is an even bigger problem.
I think it is the issue that these 'parts' who are people, were just thrown in the garbage. That is the issue SeunFlorida. They deserved better and if it isn't a big deal then why the cover up. When people are hiding things, they are ashamed. It is wrong ALL THE WAY AROUND.
Shows you just how the government really cares about the troops. The only thing the government cares about is money and ruling the world. Every time they mention brave,dedicated soldiers, it is for public consumption only. In private, they could care less. Really dumb to join the military.
Not to make light of it, but I suspect in many CIVILIAN cases of catastrophic death, like a gas explosion, or major car accidnets, that there are body parts that never make it to the casket. When your blown to kingdom come, and someone finds a piece of you, or an unidentifiable piece of someone, after the big parts have already been shipped off to the morgue and funeral home, its pretty tough to do follow-up.
Landfill idea probably not the greatest. But I suspect a little research by the Post will show that all across the country, small pieces and unidentifiable pieces left over from the collection/mortuarty process get tossed out with the trash.
We only work and get a little play. For the Mega Rich Republicans who wear the flag in their lapels. Screw them our young men and women are pawns in security for these Republican big wigs as their children would not see the front lines of an all out war. They will be making decisions as to much more money they can make from another conflict while our Young men and women from the armed forces shed their lives for these rich pigs. God bless our men and women in the landfill God is everywhere and he will bless them for the ultimate sacrifice they make for the Republican Chosen Rich to make more money on their sacrifice. Eventually we all become dust and that is the real equality of life.
You're blithering idiot
Munchkin...please...just step away from the keyboard. You are the idiot.
Who was in charge, who made the decision in favor of the landfill? That's the person who needs our attention, attention like a laser beam. Those involved who had direct knowledge or participated in making this happen need to be evaluated on a case by case basis. Any Officers or NCOs involved, their careers should be terminated; I don't care if they're only months away from retirement, fire them now.
The person who made this decision should be shamed publicly for their actions. I hope Rep. Holt stays on this issue like a pit bull.
I can understand the mechanics of this issue, but disposal in a landfill? WTH? Gross, poor judgment, not befitting the handling of the remains of lives lost in service to our country. Sad, very sad.
As disgusting as this is, I can't say I'm surprised. While in the military a fellow soldier in my unit was court martialed for 'damaging government property' because he got so badly sunburned during personal time, he couldn't properly perform his duties. So the military considers you property and when given the go ahead to 'respectfully' dispose of the remains, they throw you in the trash like a broken typewriter. Shameful.
Oh my gosh, Bush and Cheney should be put on trial for treason! Add in Rumsfeld. This is one disgusting moment in American History.
If this had occurred under Obama's watch, trial for treason protestors would be marching right now.
Talk about moral decay.
I'll make one more reply to my own comment.
The Soliders in the Tomb of the Unknown must be turning over in their grave in disgust.
The Soldiers in that tomb were complete soldiers with just wounds. The things we're speaking of in this article are just body parts. War back then was different. The weapons used today make body parts into hamburger. Sounds morbid to collect meat and dump it into a box and memorialize it. I'm not trying to sound insensitive but if you go to the hospital and have a leg or arm removed do you ask the doc who took it off to save it so you can keep it? No and that is what they government is thinking. Landfill is a harsh dank place to dispose of it but then again a grab bag of incinerated body parts to go memorialize is kind of morbid too if you ask me. Then you would have the different religions up in arms saying they don't think they should all be put together in a grave. Again I'll also say that people aren't reading this article completely and thinking we're taking unidentified soldiers bodies and dumping them. This isn't the case it's body PARTS NOT bodies!
Excuses excuses excuses. Good at that huh seun.
Wow, and they didn't think this would become news someday, shows you what morons are running this country...you give your life for our freedom and you get dumped in a landfill???unbelievable..