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The Air Force admitted that the Dover mortuary misplaced a dead soldier’s ankle and another set of remains that had been stored in a plastic bag. Employees also sawed off the damaged arm bone of a Marine so he could fit in his uniform and coffin — but did not tell his family.
Military officials said the incidents resulted from the strain of handling thousands of dead bodies, some with gruesome injuries that made it difficult to prepare remains for burial. […]
The grisly findings at Dover echoed a similar scandal at another hallowed repository for the military’s dead, Arlington National Cemetery. An Army investigation last year documented cases of misidentified remains at Arlington, dug-up urns that had been dumped in a dirt pile and botched contracts worth millions of dollars. […]
Dover mortuary has also been dumping cremated portions in a Virginia landfill for years.
So much for treating our war dead with honor.
Mom.
I will always live with the regret that wasn’t there. When the phone rang at 2:30 in the morning and I saw that I had about a dozen missed calls I knew. You had passed and I never got to tell you how made me so strong, that I try to raise my kids like you raised us, that I love you. The number of memorable and outstanding days I will have in my lifetime will never out weigh the day you passed, the one day I can only dream of having back. My heart aches. I miss you and will see you in my dreams where we will have endless conversations about everything and nothing. I miss you mom.
