Dover mortuary pressed to avoid dumping of 9/11 remains at landfill, official says
Dover mortuary pressed to avoid dumping of 9/11 remains at landfill, official says
Steve Ruark/AP - The former interim director of Dover Air Force base says superiors in military directed that the ashes be mixed with medical waste and handed over to a contractor for disposal.
By Craig Whitlock,
Officials at an Air Force mortuary pushed to have some cremated remains from victims of the Sept. 11 attacks buried at sea, but they were overruled by higher-ups in the military who insisted on a plan that resulted in the ashes being dumped in a landfill, according to a mortuary official.
William D. Zwicharowski, a civilian who served as interim director of the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in 2002, said in an interview that he was still pained by the outcome and wished he had resisted the order more strenuously.
snip//
A Defense Department review of operations at the Dover mortuary revealed last week that some unidentified human remains recovered from the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 at the Pentagon were incinerated and dumped in a landfill.
The disclosure stunned senior military leaders, lawmakers and victims’ families, who had assumed that all unidentified remains from the attack had been cremated and buried together as a group at Arlington National Cemetery.
more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dover-mortuary-pressed-to-avoid-dumping-of-911-remains-at-landfill-official-says/2012/03/06/gIQAVIXMvR_story.html
