Burial within 24 hours after return to US?

aquart

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:04 PM
Original message

Burial within 24 hours after return to US?

My sister's friend David has now lost 4 cousins and an uncle in Iraq. He says that the military is burying the bodies within 24 hours, not even allowing time for the families to be present. Some cousins were buried in Arlington when their preference was family plots elsewhere and the families are now enduring the grief of exhumation orders to get the bodies moved.

How very sensitive and considerate our gov't is of the sacrifice.

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GreenPartyVoter

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:06 PM
Response to Original message

1. Geez! Nominatin' this one for the homepage. Have your family

Edited on Thu Dec-09-04 01:39 PM by GreenPartyVoter

talked to some veteran's associations to see if this sort of thing is ok?

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elsur

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:08 PM
Response to Original message

2. I have a huge problem believing that ...

... is there some print or internet reference to this issue somewhere? I just did a quick google search and came up blank.

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aquart

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #2

7. No. I got it over the phone from my furious sister in San Diego.

Please do check it out. Angry people can distort.

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sui generis

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:12 PM
Response to Original message

3. I'm sure a mortuary tech could chime in here

but generally if you've been turned into hamburger, there is no way to keep your body from rapidly decomposing. Embalming works by perfusion, and requires relatively whole blood vessels to work.

Absent that, heavy refrigeration is required, which leads to problems with transport, and even worse problems with displaying a sweating coffin.

It's a fact of death.

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HippieCowgirl

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:13 PM
Response to Original message

4. I don't think this is true

My neighbor just lost her brother in Iraq. His body is being shipped to Texas for burial here. His funeral is tomorrow, and when I talked to her on Monday she said he had just arrived at Dover.

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Mandate My Ass

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:19 PM
Response to Original message

5. HBO special "Last Letters Home" just heartbreaking

the one in which families read their loved one's last letters from Iraq. Each was terribly poignant in its own way but the one that got me most was the mom who lost her daughter in Iraq and she said her one comfort that kept her going after she got the news was that her girl was finally coming home for good and all she wanted to do was touch her hair.

The military had soldered the casket closed and she was told there was no way they would open it for any reason, even a mother's last wish.

I tremble to think of the condition her body must have been in.

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catmandu57

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Thu Dec-09-04 01:22 PM
Response to Original message

6. It's kind of hard to swallow this

They could, and usually do a closed coffin anyway if the body can't be embalmed.

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