Military tightens rules on cremation
Won’t use location with pet facility
By Nancy A. Youssef
- McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Updated: 05/10/08 6:39 AM
WASHINGTON — The U. S. military no longer will cremate troops’ remains from Iraq and Afghanistan at a location that includes a separate crematory for pets, the Pentagon announced Friday evening.
Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said “no evidence whatsoever” indicates that any human remains were mistreated or that any troops were cremated in the separate crematory designated for pets.
Instead, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made the decision Friday after a soldier who works at the Pentagon informed the department that a crematory contracted by the department also incinerated animals.
Morrell called the practice “insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen.”
Soldiers killed in action abroad are flown back to Dover Air Force base in Delaware. The base mortuary, however, does not have a crematorium, so the military contracts with two funeral homes for cremations.
Torbert Funeral Home, about two miles from the base, operates crematories in two buildings, one for humans and the other for pets, said Bill Torbert, the owner.
A sign outside the pet crematory identifies the building, he said.
Friday, a soldier who works in the Pentagon accompanied the body of a friend killed in combat to Torbert’s and saw the sign saying pets were cremated at the facility, Morrell said.
Upset by what he saw, the soldier informed the department, prompting the secretary to end the practice, Morrell said.
Torbert said mistakenly cremating a human in the pet facility would be impossible because the crematory for animals is too small.
“We just hope we served the best we can,” Torbert said. “We don’t think we did anything in an unethical manner.”
Still, the Pentagon promised a full investigation.
Troops killed in combat are supposed to be escorted from the battlefield to interment. But Torbert said that when a body arrives at his facility, a military official leaves it alone overnight for the six-hour cremation process and then retrieves the remains the next day.
Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, the Air Force staff director, and Lt. Gen. David Huntoon, the Army staff director, will visit Dover, the Pentagon said.
