Damn, the AF is fucking up.
Air Force Morgue Lost Body Parts From War Dead, Investigation Reveals
Air Force Morgue Lost Body Parts From War Dead, Investigation Reveals
Air Force Morgue Lost Body Parts From War Dead, Investigation Reveals
WASHINGTON The Air Force mortuary that receives America's war dead and prepares them for burial lost portions of human remains twice in 2009, prompting the Air Force to discipline three senior officials for "gross mismanagement."
A year-long Air Force investigation reviewed 14 sets of allegations of improper handling of war remains as reported by three whistleblower workers at Dover Air Force Base, Del. That is where all war dead are received from foreign battlefields to be identified, autopsied and prepared for transfer to their families.
The Air Force inspector general concluded that no laws or regulations had been violated, as alleged, but an independent agency that reviewed the probe said the Air Force failed to accept accountability for its mistakes.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has asked for a separate investigation.
The Air Force determined that the mortuary's top leadership failed over time to respond to clear signs of weakness in accounting for human remains a task the Air Force says it considers one of its most solemn duties.
Two of the three officials who were punished are still work at Dover but not in supervisory jobs. None was fired.
In reviewing the Air Force's probe, the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency, sharply disputed the conclusion that none of the allegations of mishandling of remains amounted to violations of law or regulation. The special counsel submitted its own report Tuesday to the White House and to the House and Senate armed services committees that oversee the Air Force.
The special counsel's office, which triggered the Air Force probe by referring to it the Dover whistleblowers' allegations, said some of the Air Force's conclusions "do not appear reasonable" and in some cases are not supported by available evidence.
"In these instances the report demonstrates a pattern of the Air Force's failure to acknowledge culpability for wrongdoing relating to the treatment of remains of service members and their families," the special counsel's report said.
"While the report reflects a willingness to find paperwork violations and errors, with the exception of the cases of missing portions (of remains), the findings stop short of accepting accountability for failing to handle remains with the requisite `reverence, care and dignity befitting them and the circumstances,'" it said.
In addition to the two cases of lost body pieces, the Air Force reviewed allegations that mortuary officials acted improperly in sawing off an arm bone that protruded from the body of a Marine in a way that prevented his body from being placed in his uniform for viewing before burial. The Marine's family had requested seeing him in his uniform but was not consulted about or told of the decision to remove the bone.
The Marine, whose identity was not released by the Air Force, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in January 2010. The 2009 cases of lost body pieces also involved troops killed in Afghanistan.
The Air Force inspector general began his investigation in June 2010. It concluded that the mortuary had not violated any rule or regulation by removing the Marine's bone as it did. But the Air Force has since changed procedures to ensure that a representative of the deceased's service in this case the Marine Corps has a formal say in whether the family should be contacted before altering the body so significantly.
The Office of Special Counsel took a different view. It noted that the Air Force said the decision not to seek family consent was based on a desire to spare the family "undue distress." But the special counsel said it does not believe the Air Force actually even considered these issues in deciding not to consult the family "but rather were reasons used to justify their actions after the fact."
A total of four families affected directly by the investigation were told of it last weekend by Air Force officials. In addition to the Marine's family, three military families are affected by the two cases of lost body parts one related to an Army soldier's remains and two involving remains of Air Force crewmen.
Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview with The Associated Press and reporters from three other news organizations that the three senior officials who were disciplined had failed to "connect the dots" that should have framed a set of serious shortcomings at Dover particularly with regard to keeping track of portions of remains that must be handled and examined.
The three are Col. Robert H. Edmondson, who was in overall command of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations at Dover at the time; Trevor Dean, who was Edmondson's top civilian deputy; and Quinton "Randy" Keel, director of the mortuary division at Dover.
Air Force Morgue Lost Body Parts From War Dead, Investigation Reveals