StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

There is something inherently wrong with this. “We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said at a news conference hastily convened last night. What’s this all about? Cremation (of our Iraq and Afgahnistan war dead).

The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops’ remains, after an officer visited Dover this week and saw a sign that said a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.

The Pentagon is now recommending that the remains of our war heroes be cremated in a facility dedicated to humans only.

According to the Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates found “the site and signage insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen,” Morrell said. “The families of the fallen have the secretary’s deepest apology,” he said.

“The secretary believes that it is inappropriate, even if though permissible under the rules and regulations, to cremate our fallen, our heroes, in a facility that also cremates pets,” he added.

I suspect that this isn’t an easy one to explain.

All troops’ remains arrive from the battlefield to the Dover Air Force Base Port Mortuary, which does not have its own crematorium. The Associated Press said Dover contracts with Torbert and Pippens Funeral Home for cremations.

Pippens uses a crematorium at the funeral home that is used only for human remains, AP reported.

Undoubtably, there will those who simply blame this incident on the mainstream media. I blame it on an expedient bureacracy…I expect that Secretary Gates did not know about this and will correct it.

creamtorium, Dover Delaware, Geoff Morrell, Pentagon