No remains of our honored military dead were mishandled, but there is an issue of respect and appearances that needs to be considered. As such, the decision in this particular situation is correct.

The U.S. military has, since 2001, cremated some of the remains of American service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere at a Delaware facility that also cremates pets, a practice that ended yesterday when the Pentagon banned the arrangement.

The facility, located in an industrial park near Dover Air Force Base, has cremated about 200 service members, manager David A. Bose estimated last night. It uses separate crematories a few feet apart to cremate humans and animals, he added, insisting that there had "not been any people gone through the pet crematory."

Pentagon officials said they do not think that human remains and animal remains were ever commingled at the facility. "We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said at a news conference hastily convened last night.

Regardless, the Pentagon will no longer permit crematories not located with funeral homes to handle the remains of U.S. troops, defense officials said.

According to the report, the facility at the heart of the dispute has crematories for both pets and humans, and the former are not of a proper size to cremate human beings. But the two types of crematories are physically located in the same room, and the facility itself has signage identifying itself as Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service. I'd therefore have to agree that the decision in this case is an appropriate one.

But there is a problem with the promulgated regulation that requires that all military cremations take place in funeral homes. After all, not every funeral home has a cremation facility, and so this could have the impact of limiting the funeral options available to the families of military personnel -- especially in situations where a crematorium might be located separately and operated independently from the funeral home, such as at a cemetery. In addition, the change could cause delays in cremations.

Posted by: Greg at 02:53 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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