Medical Waste!

We’re probably all “outraged out” over the reports of sexual abuse that had taken place at Penn State…which explains why this story, when it was first reported, didn’t garner any of the emotion I thought it would. 

 The report originally appeared in the Washington Post saying that the Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years would dispose of portions of troops’ remains by dumping them in a Virginia landfill.  The method used was first to cremate and incinerate them, once they were thought to be unidentifiable, and then ship them off to a landfill in Virginia. 

What really brought home the emotion of it all was seeing the report where you’d see garbage trucks dropping off their loads in a landfill….garbage strewn about, and seagulls overhead searching out whatever morsels they could feed on.

It further added insult to injury when an Air Force official acknowledged what was happening; the official said it was like disposing medical waste.  They did say, however, that the practice was abandoned about 3 years ago, in favor of a more respectful way of dumping  the ashes at sea.

Medical waste.  Isn’t that something that you associate with used needles?  Not incinerated fragments of our war dead! 

So, as you'd imagine, along with the Penn State scandal, this too is to be investigated by the feds.

Looks like they’re going to have their hands full in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Are there enough feds to go around?