Respect
Via Maru, another example of the Shrubbery’s version of supporting the troops.
The correct procedure is to assign someone to accompany the body home and to coordinate with the family to see if they wish a military ceremony. While a family may elect to have a local funeral home take care of the transportation, you don’t send the family a note saying that you are shipping the remains airfreight and they should check with the airline for the arrival details.
The casualty officer assigned should take care of these things and act as the liaison between the survivors and the military. That is the procedure. That is what is contained the manual. If the military cannot properly honor the dead in accordance with the procedures, they should stop sending them to die.
Reading the article made me extremely angry, beyond the capacity of even swearing to release the fury. You don’t desert your dead on the battlefield. Why would the individuals involved in this assume that it would be acceptable to abandon them once they had been returned to this country? The cost of doing this properly is a pittance compared to the price the family has paid in the service of this country.
