The other "Welcome Home" -
Final Respects to Our Fallen Heroes
Several weeks ago a group from the Air Force Surgeon General’s
office was invited to visit the mortuary
at Dover Air Force Base, Del. As a medical services corps
officer, we don’t get many such invitations
since it is mostly the “clinical” types who go on such visits.
Like many others, I had heard of the port
mortuary at Dover my entire career, and given the opportunity to
see it in person, I jumped at the chance.
There was certainly some apprehension the night before the trip
wondering how I would react to what I
anticipated seeing. Being a Medical Service Corps Officer I had
spent my career on the “clean” side of
the “red line” in the hospitals I had been assigned. The visit
turned out to be one of the most sobering and
meaningful events of my life.
We drove up from Washington D.C. on a beautiful spring day. Once
you clear the congestion of D.C. and
cross into Delaware you are struck by the beauty and open
spaces. Dover AFB is a well-kept and bustling
base. After a quick “meet and greet” with the Wing Commander,
Col John Pray, we arrived at the
Charles C. Carson Mortuary.
The mortuary is a brand new building, dedicated in November
2003. To say a mortuary is beautiful
sounds odd, but this building truly is. Once inside the main
doors you are immediately struck by the large
curving wall in front of you with several engraved panels of
names and dates, events like the Viet Nam
Era, Khobar Tours, the Guyana Massacre, and the Space Shuttle
disaster. The wall honors the work of
the mortuary handling many of the memorable and meaningful
events of my lifetime. The visitor is also
struck by the barreled vaulted translucent ceiling with a
bubbling fountain directly underneath that lets in
the natural sunlight and the water that seems to spring eternal.
We were met by the mortuary director, Karen Giles, and Lt. Col.
Susan Hanshaw from the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology who conducted the tour. It was
immediately apparent how proud they were of the
new facility, but even more so, in being part of this necessary,
but not glamorous, aspect of service to our
country. Every time they referred to the deceased
soldier/sailor/airman/Marine it was always, “the fallen
hero.” At first it seemed like one of the politically sanitized
phrases that many of us have used in various
settings over the years, but as the tour continued, it became
clear to me that this was the phrase everyone
used, and that it was also the most appropriate.
The tour begins at the back door. The mortuary is located right
on the flight line so aircraft can pull up
directly to the receiving area. Once the transfer cases, which
contain the fallen heroes, are off-loaded,
they are taken into an explosive ordinance disposal room that
has walls about 10 inches thick. The
transport case cover is taken off and the remains are checked
for any loose ordinance that might have
been missed overseas. The remains are then run though an X-ray
machine that looks like the ones at
airports to inspect checked baggage. The value of this screening
became clear. Just the week before a
live grenade was found in the body armor on the remains of one
of the soldiers.
Once the remains have been determined to be safe they are taken
to the finger print area where we met
two FBI personnel from Quantico, Va., who rotate every six days
to work at the mortuary. The day
before remains arrive at Dover, the names and other information
are provided. The agents then pull
fingerprint files from an FBI computer in Martinsburg W. Va.,
which contains all active duty military and
literally millions of other sets. From fingerprints the remains
are taken to dental. Here again, all of our
dental records are on file and can be used as a match.
Unfortunately, while all our records are on file,
most are hard copies of X-rays and charting. The mortuary has a
state–of-the-art digital dental X-ray
system that greatly streamlines the process. The same is true at
the next station, full body X-ray. The
radiology techs said the new system was eight to 10 times faster
than the old wet film method, and images
could now be captured on a CD-ROM rather than films. When we
were finished in radiology it marked
the end of the “easy” part of the tour, as there were no remains
being processed while we were at any of
these stations.
That was not the case as I looked across the hall in the autopsy
room, our next stop.
A full autopsy is performed on all the fallen heroes. No longer
can we simply provide families with the
statement, “Killed in Action.” Families want to know what
exactly happened to their loved ones, so for
medical and legal reasons a full autopsy is performed. Again, as
an MSC, I wasn’t sure how well I would
handle this part of the tour, but knowing what these brave men
had sacrificed, my concerns seemed pretty
trivial. There were two autopsies being conducted when we
arrived. The medical teams performing were
very professional and careful how they handled the remains. The
room itself had 10 bays, a high ceiling
with bright lighting and lots of air circulation. When we exited
this room we entered the embalming area
that is a mirror of the autopsy room. Here two of the staff were
preparing the remains of another fallen
hero. It sounds odd to say, but I could see the pride these
professionals took in their work. Everything
that can be done to make the remains look “normal” is done. From
here the remains go to “cosmetology”
where expert make-up personnel restore the faces to look as
natural as possible.
It was comforting to see Critical Incident Stress Management
team members, quietly present throughout
the mortuary. These CISM teams are there to support mortuary
team members at the point of stress.
Even the most seasoned staff members have moments when the blunt
trauma of War is overwhelming,
and there is a constant need for a calming, healing presence for
the caretakers.
Our fallen heroes are now ready to be put back in uniform. Since
almost all the deaths are combat related,
no one arrives with their dress uniform. Here another group of
dedicated experts goes to work. Service
records are used to verify rank, branch of service and medals.
There is the most complete “military
clothing sales store” in this one location. Shirts, socks,
underwear, pants, blouses are all available from
every branch of the service, in any size you can imagine, they
also have every ribbon of every service.
Unit patches and pins are also on hand. The staff can make the
ribbon rack and nametags right there in
less than a day. When we walked through, eight fallen heroes
from the Army, Navy, and Marines had
just finished being put back in uniform. We noticed in the
clothing area a trashcan filled with Marine
dress uniform coats. We later met the master gunnery sergeant
assigned to the mortuary responsible for
ensuring each fallen Marine’s uniform is properly prepared. He
had inspected the coats and felt the
workmanship was not up to par and was not going to allow his
comrades to be sent home in anything less
than perfection. Every extra step to honor these fallen heroes
is accomplished; every oak leaf cluster, star,
and device is polished before being put on the ribbon. Every
belt buckle and badge gets a luster to it.
Uniforms are altered and pressed to fit as perfectly as
possible. Also in this area is the personal effects
room. On separate racks are the personal items that each of
these fallen heroes was carrying at the time of
death. To me, this was the most poignant portion of the tour;
pictures, money, keys, watches still on
Baghdad time, were things we expected to see, but it was the
drivers licenses and military ID cards
pictures that brought home what young and vibrant people these
were. Little things like Blockbuster
video rental cards and AT&T Calling Cards reminded me that these
were real people, not statistics. The
staff explained that the personal items accompany the remains,
and the money is sent to the Defense
Accounting & Finance Service and a check is cut for that exact
amount and forwarded to the next of kin.
Once the remains are dressed, they are moved to the final
preparation area and placed in caskets. The
families have a choice of either metal or wood. There was even a
wooden coffin for Jewish personnel
that contained no metal, a requirement of that religion. There
were cremation urns available too, if that is
the family’s desire. Again, proof that no detail is overlooked.
That day there were seven caskets waiting
for escorts and final shipping arrangements. They would be gone
by the next evening.
As we came back up front, Ms. Giles took the time to explain how
important some of the other people in
the process were. The folks who arrange for airline tickets for
the escorts and handle the arrangements
for the caskets were another group of unsung heroes. These are
the folks who make sure there are not
“hiccups” along the way back home. Over and over we heard, “We
are a zero defects operation. We
can’t let anything go wrong because the families of these fallen
heroes are waiting.”
It was a day of many emotions. Most people will never get a
chance to see what we saw, and probably
would not want to. I’m glad I did. I realized once more that
casualty numbers are the sanitized
amorphous representation of what I had just seen. I witnessed
that those “numbers” were real people who
joined the military to serve their country and paid the ultimate
price. It also allowed me to meet another
group of professionals whose dedication ensures that these
fallen heroes are treated exactly as the name
implies. Every detail is carefully thought out and executed to
ensure the smooth, swift, and dignified
processing of the remains. Every person I met exuded pride in
what they did and their role in ensuring
the families got back their loved one in the best manner
possible; appropriate and in keeping with the
sacrifice they performed for this country. The workload
continues. It is obviously a high stress working
environment, but the core mortuary staff along with the
temporary duty personnel and those from other
agencies are focused on their duty. They have to be, there were
eight more fallen heroes arriving the next
day……
In the final preparation area there were two large wall posters.
One had a poem that summed up the
whole experience. It did not have an author’s name, but the
words struck a chord...
Not the shock
Not the peril
Not the grief
Not the odds
Not the fatigue
Not the weight of it all combined has stopped these American
heroes and heroines |
