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Mortuary affairs shows respect to the fallen

Photo By Capt. Monika Comeaux | Spc. Luis Rodriguez, a mortuary affairs specialist with the 311th Quartermaster...... read more read more

12.22.2005

Courtesy Story

DVIDS Hub

A ringing phone interrupted the Soldiers" friendly conversation and the soft tones of Puerto Rican music that filled the air. Their faces turned serious.

Soldiers at the Baghdad International Airport Mortuary Affairs Collection Point usually find out about incoming remains by phone.

The mortuary is located at Sather Air Base in a remote corner of the airfield where the road dead-ends. Most units find the location by the grid coordinates because it's hard to give exact directions. A white sign up front states what the place is and a "NO HAT, NO SALUTE" posting courteously reminds visitors to show respect while at the facility.

When remains arrive, the seven-person mortuary affairs team starts working in unison. If it's nighttime, the person on duty wakes up everyone but one person, who will then pull the dayshift as the others sleep. Someone always keeps a vigil.

"In theater, we handle primarily U.S. and Coalition human remains, civilian and DOD contractors, and any third country nationals who work in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Capt. Xavier Colon, the Multi-National Coalition Iraq C-4 Mortuary Affairs Officer. The center also processes remains of translators, detainees and insurgents. They treat all remains with the same respect.

There are approximately ten collection points in theater, Colon said. The one at Baghdad International Airport is the busiest, processing an average of 10 to12 remains a week. The U.S. Army has the best organized mortuary affairs system in theater, Colon said.

Remains of U.S. servicemembers are usually shipped to Kuwait within 12 hours, said Sgt. Jorge A. Santiago, the NCOIC of the collection point, who is from the Army Reserve's 311th Quartermaster Company. Santiago has only been in country for two months, and has only been an NCO for five, but he runs the center with confidence. He has a lot of experience in his military occupational specialty.

Santiago and some of the other Soldiers he is working with at the collection point sifted through the rubble in the north parking lot of the Pentagon days after Sept. 11 looking for the remains of the victims. Later, they helped out at the U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs Activity " Europe in Landstuhl, Germany, as the war started. Santiago was also sent on missions with the Disaster Mortuary Affairs Response Teams to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 24-year-old has seen a lot.

Once the remains arrive at the mortuary, a unit representative or medic signs paperwork to properly release the remains to the collection point. Personal effects, anything the servicemember wore or had with him when he died, are properly inventoried and logged and shipped to Kuwait with the remains. Military-issued items are returned to the unit for turn-in.

As soon as the processing is done, the remains are put in a refrigeration van and a member of the team picks up the phone to call the movement control team to manifest the remains on a flight.

As the remains await their flight, unit commanders often come in, hold the hands of their fallen Soldiers and say their final thanks and goodbyes. This is the last chance they have before the remains are shipped, said Spc. Pedro A. Santiago, a mortuary affairs specialist in the 311th from Puerto Rico.

"If they need to take a person off a flight to manifest the remains, they will take a person off the flight. Fallen Soldiers are always first," said Spc. Luis Rodriguez, also a mortuary affairs specialist from the 311th working at the collection point.

The Air Force and other services put together a detail at Sather to honor the fallen heroes. The servicemembers line up and slowly salute the remains as pallbearers march them in transfer cases wrapped in the U.S. colors onto the plane to make their final journey home.

The remains are quickly processed through Kuwait, and are on their way to Dover Air Force Base, Del., where autopsies are conducted. From that point, they are sent to the mourning families within 24 to 48 hours.

"Escorts are not really authorized in theater. If the company does want it, it has to be approved at a general's level. If they do come, they stay here and as soon as there is a flight, they fly with the remains," Sgt. Santiago explained.

As a courtesy, the mortuary has set up some beds and always has something to eat and drink on hand, in case an escort needs to get some food and rest before taking off on his journey.

Currently, remains of deceased detainees are also shipped to the United States because there are no adequate facilities in theater to conduct autopsies. The Baghdad International Airport Mortuary Affairs Collection Point is soon to be the first in theater that will have a facility to properly process these remains.

Other personal effects that were not with the Soldier when he passed away, the possessions with which he deployed, are also inventoried by the unit and turned in at the MACP. From there, they go to the Theater Personal Effects Depot in Kuwait, then to the Personal Effects Depot at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md. Everything is inventoried and tracked on paper. The belongings are cleaned and are eventually shipped to the family or a person appointed by the deceased.

"The hardest part really is the personal effects. You have to go through everything," said Sgt. Santiago, who works at the PED at Aberdeen Proving Grounds as a civilian. "Sometimes you have letters and pictures. That is pretty hard. The photos of children are hard to see."

"It is very hard when you have a Soldier from your same nation or country, because you feel that this Soldier had the same dreams as you about going back home," Rodriguez said. It takes a strong person to work in this profession.

"You have to get rid of your fears. Many people can't handle it," said Spc. Santiago. "At first I thought I wouldn't be able to handle it, but since the Pentagon, I don't feel anything." Spc. Santiago volunteered to deploy to Iraq.

"Not too many people wanted to come over here. Before I leave the Army, I wanted to be part of something really big," he said.

Rodriguez said that after being in country for only two months, he already looks at life in a different light.

"When you see a lot of deceased people, you are going to see life differently. I think when I go back to college, I will take it more seriously. I want to finish and go to law school," he said.

The most junior member of the team, 20-year-old Spc. Eladio E. Torres said that he is able to look at his job as a job.

"This is one of the hardest jobs there is out here. We do the best we can," Torres said.

The small Puerto Rican team lives every day in seclusion. Not many come and visit them unless they have business to do. People generally avoid contact with them.

"Some say we send out bad vibes," Rodriguez said.

They rely on each other, taking care of one another every day of their deployment. Most of them don't even want to go on leave, because they feel they would let the team down if they left.

When asked what they would like to say to the families, all of them highlighted that the remains are treated with dignity, reverence and respect, and are shipped home as soon as possible.

"I don't like when we have work to do because that means that we lost somebody," Rodriguez said. "I always say, 'respect everyone while they are alive," because when you lose somebody, it's too late."