Tents in Kuwait Serve As U.S. Mortuary

[La_Serpiente]

Tents in Kuwait Serve As U.S. Mortuary

CAMP WOLVERINE, Kuwait - The bodies come in most every day. The American soldiers here strip them of their belongings and lay them in metal coffins packed with ice.

"Most people are scared of us," said Spc. Steve Rawlings, who works in the white tent serving as the mortuary for U.S. soldiers killed in neighboring Iraq (news - web sites). "Most people don't want to talk about death."

The Theater Mortuary Evacuation Point occupies a forlorn cluster of tents at the back corner of this sand-covered base in Kuwait, hidden behind stacks of shipping containers.

Few people venture here, other than an occasional jogger and the 30 mortuary affairs specialists like Rawlings, who handle the American corpses shipped to the base. Outside the main tent, a hundred or more metal caskets — or "transfer cases" — sit at the ready, each wrapped in plastic. A dusty refrigerator truck with a windshield sticker reading "Mortuary" is parked nearby.

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Tents in Kuwait Serve As U.S. Mortuary

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. The military denied permission to photograph the mortuary area

The military denied permission to photograph the mortuary area, saying it was the most sensitive portion of Camp Wolverine.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. They don't want anybody counting the dead, do they?

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. I think they are being overcautious

Expendable military resources are not recruited from the more affluent classes, but those considered undesirable before they join and disposable once they do.

[Pale_Rider]

4. Photos would drive the point home ...

... that our troops are dying on daily basis! Bring em home and send Bush over!

[ex_jew]

5. 30 mortuary affairs specialists ?

That seems like an awful lot for the 1 or 2 killed per day we hear about. Maybe they're ramping up for the coming civil war.

[reprobate]

6. I would think the mortuary specs would handle only US troops

With 30 mortuary afairs specs that means that each would work about one day a week to handle US needs.

They are either massively overstaffed or they are handleing more than the one or two daily that we hear about. Another question: how many mortuary flights a week come into Edwards? More than one a week? That would mean many more bodies than the ten to fouteen a week they tell us about.

Of course, body counts during vietnam were faked too.

[PsychoDad]

7. I thought that myself....

30 does sound like a large number vs 1 to 3 dead a day.... Unless there are more, or they expect more.

[saigon68]

8. They expect more--- that's why they are over-staffed.

Heads would roll if 100 dead bodies came in on a single day and no one could "Ice Them Down" and "Ship Them Out".

Anyone who has ever been in the military, has seen other like examples of this mentality.

Not every base or unit is just hanging on at low manning numbers