A significant effort is made to return a U. S. service member home with dignity and respect after they pass away while serving abroad. Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations, based at Dover Air Base Base in Delaware, oversees that effort regardless of the branch that the deceased service member served in.
Many people, including military chaplains and liaisons who assist the families of the deceased, licensed mortuary specialists, and deployed service members, are involved in the so-called dignified transfer of remains mission.
While many people have witnessed crews bringing flag-draped transfer cases from an aircraft to a waiting vehicle, this is only an extremely small portion of the work involved in returning an injured service member.
With Care and Respect
Naturally, the effort starts abroad, where the service member passed away. Mortuary technicians work to transport his or her remains to an evacuation point so they can be flown to Dover once they have been located. Tracking those flights and beginning the process of contacting others in the chain of command are members of AFMAO’s Command, Control, and Communications Center, or C3.
According to Lucas Rigdon, a specialist in the C3 mortuary control center,” We call the [service ] branch liaison and we call over to the armed forces medical examiners to make sure everyone is tracking and that the remains are being directed toward the port morgue.”
When an aircraft lands, trained military carry teams—andnbsp, the service members you’ve probably seen carrying the transfer case draped in the flag—take the remains off the aircraft. And while that part might seem straightforward, the seven team members who are assigned to it actually perform precise and distinctive movements in unison.
According to Air Force Master Sgt.,” It is perfection because this is the one time that the family members will witness their loved ones being carried off that plane.” The AFMAO Operations Support Division’s section chief is Christopher Gangloff. He assists in educating the teams. Everything must be carried out with the utmost grace and precision.
High-trained carry teams perform this movement, which is known as a dignified transfer, at any time of day and in any weather. The teams learn to control their own emotions and prepare for a variety of environments and contingencies.
Gangloff remarked,” Sometimes - , frequently — genuinely – & npsf, you come face to face with grieving family members.
The medical professionals of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, which is housed in a sizable structure next to AFMAO, receive the remains from the carry teams. These personnel examine the cause of death and perform autopsies on fallen service members. The remains are returned to the AFMAO port mortuary after their work is finished.
The Only Stateside Port Mortuary, AFMAO
The Dover location became the only port mortuary in the United States when Travis Air Force Base, California, closed in 2001. Professional funeral directors who embalm, dress, and revive the appearance of deceased service members are known as port mortuary specialists.
” Preserving the dead, restoring them, and returning them to their families is our aim as embalmers.” Danielle Wilk, the chief of the Port Mortuary Branch and one of three licensed mortuaries in that region, said,” We do that with the utmost dignity, honor, and respect.”
The majority of people are familiar with the fundamentals of the embalming procedure. However, many people might not want to know the details when it comes to them. However, families must make these crucial choices, and mortuary specialists must take all reasonable steps to prepare the loved one of the family accordingly.
The strength of formaldehyde solutions used in embalming is one area of interest. According to Wilk, formaldehyde with a 2.5 % concentration strength is used in funeral industry standards. Because there are occasionally delays in burial, AFMAO uses a higher concentration, between 5 and 10 %, to help preserve the body longer.
Wilk remarked,” We do n’t know when they receive remains or how long before the final internment.” There are situations where a person might be traveling abroad or even to Arlington National Cemetery, where, according to the cemetery’s website, scheduling and conducting interments can take weeks or months.
Wilk also outlined the four levels of viewability suggested for family members, or what they would recommend be shown during a viewing. Service members who pass away without any obvious wounds are regarded as “viewable.” Since they might not exactly look the way family members remember them, those who have needed minor work from restoration experts are considered “viewable for identification.” When a service member has sustained serious trauma and is deemed unviewable, full body wraps are advised. Head wrapping is advised for service members who have sustained head or neck injuries.
The family’s chosen casket is then filled with the full body wrap, according to Wilk. ” After that, we will cover the service member’s uniform with all the honors and decorations on top of that full body wrap, allowing the family to keep an open casket for hidden remains.”
The family must still decide what to do, despite their expert advice.
According to Wilk,” If a family chooses to see their loved one, no matter their condition, they have every right to do so, even with full body wrap.”
Liaisons assist family members in selecting a casket. There are wooden coffins available for cremation as well as metal ones for burial. Mortuary specialists and deployed airmen perform several casket inspections to ensure there are no discrepancies or damage after a family has made their decision.
Wilk, an Army veteran, acknowledged that it’s not the easiest job, but she takes great pride in it.
It can be difficult to ignore the circumstances surrounding the sacrifice that has been made at times. However, she added,” For me, being strong and resilient and having a great team really is an important factor in getting by day to day.” ” To still be able to serve my country in this capacity is a great honor and privilege.”
Getting Ready for the Uniforms and nbsp, Final Presentation
Service members at AFMAO, including airmen deployed on six-month rotations to Dover, assist with many preparation tasks, with the exception of embalming and body restoration. Some of them work with branch-specific liaisons to replicate the service member’s most recent uniform in the uniforms section, which is a room filled with various military clothing.
According to Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Jessica Zugzda, the only Navy liaison at AFMAO,” we prepare the uniforms, take them to the tailor shops, make the ribbon racks,”” steam, and iron,” and “put all that together.” ” We make sure it’s ready to go and help with the casketing and dressing of our service members.”
Similar to at a post exchange, the uniform section’s walls are lined with brand-new badges, pin, and other accessories that are available for use. Order anything that is n’t already on hand, and it will be delivered in 48 hours. A tailor shop on base can make changes to the uniforms within a few hours, speeding up the entire process. An engraving station for dog tags, nametags, Purple Hearts, and urns is located in the room’s corner.
The flag press, a crucial component of the preparation process, is also located in the uniforms section.
They come in boxes, and those flags have numerous wrinkles. So, Air Force Tech said,” This is where we start to get them in perfect condition and as wrinkle-free as possible.” Sgt. Patience Templeton, who has been assigned to AFMAO for six months.
On a large table that doubles as an ironing board, where handheld irons remove any obstinate wrinkles, the flags that will eventually be draped over the caskets are put through the press several times before being fine-tuned.
Speaking of flags, AFMAO also has a program for honor guards that instructs other installations in how to perform funeral honors. These programs are distinct from the presentation of colors at sporting events and other events. In order to schedule honors for veterans and members of active duty, the program also coordinates flyovers and communicates directly with funeral homes.
An escort, typically from the service member’s unit, will be briefed on their role for the last leg of the journey once the fallen service members are prepared.
Ground transportation will transport the service member to their designated funeral home if they are being laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery or within 350 miles of Dover. If not, the remains are typically transported to a nearby airport in chartered aircraft. Before continuing to the selected funeral home for the burial, an honor guard will move the remains from the aircraft to a hearse, or dignified arrival.
educating the instructors
All of this work is done at Dover for service members who pass away while serving abroad, but local support is required for deaths that happen on installations across the United States. AFMAO trains those airmen in mortuary affairs.
According to Matt Metschke, head of the AFMAO’s case management branch,” We are essentially the funeral director that is contacting the installations to assist them.” We are in charge of how they deliver to the family. That directly reflects our program in this case.
At Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, the location of Air Education and Training Command, active-duty airmen can take mortuary officer and technician courses. These officers and technicians have received training in document inspection, paperwork completion, and, of course, family support. However, because doing so requires years of higher education, they are not regarded as funeral directors.
” They are in charge of managing the mortuary offices at their location. Therefore, Metschke said,” When a death occurs, we are the ones who are teaching them how to respond to those calls and meet the families.”
In these classes, trainees learn how to cooperate with the person in charge of making decisions regarding the remains and practice explaining the rights to actors who play family members.
They are really giving it to them, the actors say. According to Metschke, you might be in front of a family that is extremely upset with the Air Force or your family might simply not communicate. Because, traditionally speaking, you will encounter some of these kinds of situations, they are actually receiving the best training that you could possibly receive.
Additionally, trainees gain knowledge of how to create a death-related search and recovery area.
According to Metschke,” They’re going to be the ones giving direct communication to a wing or comma post.” ” Those people are going to get in touch with the mortuary officer to find out what’s going on, and then they’re working with us and the installation to provide the support,” such as” Are they coming to Dover or are they staying in place?”
Additionally, trainees will learn how to check the funeral homes assigned to each installation to make sure they are up to DOD standards.
The mortuary officer and technician provide the funeral homes with that ground training, according to Metschke.” There is a difference between what we do in preparation for that, and that’s what the civilian funeral home might do,” he said.
Typically, a virtual course is used to update mortuary officers every five years. At Dover, National Guard members receive comparable training.
According to Metschke, their objective is to do their best to comfort and care the families.
It can be difficult to answer the phone and know what to say to some of those people right away, but in the end, what’s good for them is that they know there is someone on the other side who cares, he said. ” They’re getting the person in charge of everything for their relative.” Every time, we’re going to go above and beyond.
No one would ever choose to go through the entire process for the families of the deceased. However, it is necessary to transport their loved one back to their final resting place. Those services are offered with the utmost dignity, respect, and love because of the caring staff at AFMAO.