Soldiers, from Battlefields, to Landfills, to Non-entities

Soldiers, from Battlefields, to Landfills, to Non-entities

The term “soldiers” once technically only applied to men serving in an army, a definition expanded in modern times to include both men and women and which loosely describes anyone serving in the military, although Marines, Navy personnel, airmen and Coastguardsmen might take umbrage with being called soldiers.

Whatever the interpretation of “soldiers,” generic or otherwise, they are the people who make possible our freedom to dispute nomenclature and they protect our country. As trite as it sounds today, they are the people who enable us to be free.

Yet, many of those same people have been treated like medical waste and the deaths of others have been trivialized.

Seventy years ago, soldiers were idealized and idolized as brave patriots defending their country. Forty years ago at the height of the Viet Nam war, being a soldier meant risking life and limb fighting for their country then came home and were spat on by protestors claiming they were baby killers. Thirty years ago, America elected a commander in chief who once admitted to loathing the military.

Today, we are witnessing the culmination of that spitting and loathing: The ashes of the remains of courageous men and women who died in battle have been dumped in a landfill and the deadliest attack on a U.S. military base in history is being dismissed as “workplace violence.”

The Air Force was faced with a dilemma starting as early as 1996: What to do with the bodies of dead soldiers returned to Dover Air Base, remains which they had been authorized to dispose of in an appropriately dignified, respectful manner. Their version of dignified and respectful involved secret cremation and dumping in landfills.

The practice, abandoned in 2008, was hidden from the Pentagon but not before the ashes and body fragments of as many as 2,036 dead soldiers were dumped, 274 of which the Air Force forgot about until pushed to do an accounting.

However, the Air Force and Pentagon had an excuse for not knowing precisely how many remains were dumped.

According to the Washington Post, that determination “would require searching through the records of more than 6,300 troops whose remains have passed through the [Dover AFB] mortuary since 2001.”

We certainly can’t expect the Pentagon and Air Force to expend all that time, effort, and money simply to provide a bare modicum of dignified respect for our fallen soldiers, now can we?

Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan showed an even less dignified respect for the military and human life when he slaughtered . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=9412.)