Re: 274 U.S. Troops remains found at landfill?
Yes it was thoughtless and insensitive, but I see how it could happen.
After a explosion, especially a big one, some of you know how far body parts or whole bodies can fly. And inside wrecked vehicles blown up, flipped over, and smashed, there may be parts left behind too. Not all the parts are from KIA's either.
In policing up a blast site or cleaning out a busted up vehicle it is expected to find pieces and parts.
If the American was killed, they would have to do DNA and then contact the family and notify them they got another piece of their kid. I heard of one family that buried their son, and then additional parts of him, 3 times. That's also insensitive.
The parts may also come back well after the rest of the remains. A foot, leg or part of one, a hand or arm, or something else. The part may even be small. Might be soft tissue of viscera.
The remains, identified or not, were transferred to a outside contractor for disposal as Biohazard Waste. That's what happens used dressings, dirty needles, and tissue and body parts removed from living people too.
But to transfer the stuff to a company that used a Pet Incinerator, and then dispose of the stuff in a landfill, does bother my delicate sensibilities a bit.
So much for the image that that "Taking Chance" movie tried to portray.
But dealing with bodies, especially severely damaged ones, is tough to work through, especially when the parts come in at different times, in different containers, and take time to identify each.
Graves Registration was always a difficult job, and in WW II they were digging up and moving remains for a decade after the war. They still find some, and I doubt they find all. Aircraft crashes are notorious for scattering parts, and many times air crew remains recovered from a downed aircraft were buried in common graves. When guys go back now and excavate those crash sites they frequently find bone and personal effects.
Same thing happened with tank crews that got killed and burned together. The inside of a Sherman with fuel and ammo cooking off and smoldering for days didn't leave much, if anything.
In the Navy after shell and bomb hits, or kamakizes, they would collect up scattered limbs and tissue and bones and put them in trash cans or buckets and toss them over the side. There really was no other option, and KIA were listed as such and only identified because they didn't answer roll or muster well afterwards and weren't in Sick Bay. Few were lucky enough, or intact enough, to get the flag drapped over them and be slid over the side while the Chaplain recited the Seaman's prayer. Sometimes there were more dead and wounded than alive. They just didn't have time for ceremony, and when ships were able to limp back to the yards they often found pieces during the repair. They were still finding pieces after the USS Stark got back to the States.
They still got thousands of bone fragments from 9/11. How many times are they going to call the family and tell them they have another finger bone, do you want it?
Was it fucked up, yes. But have some perspective. I doubt the Air Force at Dover will do this again. But I know they try hard to do the right thing.