Military to require soldiers to pick person to handle remains

[sabra]

<snip>
http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=3563979&ClientType=Printable

Military to require soldiers to pick person to handle remains





LAS VEGAS The military is going to require service members to designate someone to handle their remains.

The decision comes after two burial disputes involving divorced parents of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John Molino announced the policy change in a letter to Nevada Congressman Shelley Berkley. Service members will now be required to name a custodian of their remains. Designation had been optional.

<snip>

[enigami]

1. Progress

inevitable I guess. When I was in they just tod me to tuck one of my dog tags in my boot.

[mom cat]

2. They should fill out the form then wait a week to finish the

enlistment process.

BUT BEFORE IT GETS TO THAT, CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW: TOOLS FOR OPTING OUT OF THE MILITARY SCHOOL INFO LIST:

[benddem]

3. gee I thought it

was bad when they assigned me to one of those medical teams that go forward...and they sent me for a panorex...a dental xray so they could identify the body. If they'd asked me to identify someone to handle my remains yuck.

[Dead_Parrot]

4. If I was out there, I'd pick Bush

Might make him wake up. (Yeah, right)

[NVMojo]

5. Military to require soldiers to pick person to handle remains

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The military will require soldiers to designate someone to handle their remains after two high-profile burial disputes involving the parents of servicemen killed in battle.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John Molino said in a letter to Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., that the department is modifying its forms to compel service members to identify who should be awarded custody of their remains. The information had previously been optional.

"This simple change will prevent heartache for military families and will give our service men and women the final say in who determines their funeral arrangements," Berkley said in a statement Wednesday.

Berkley and Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., had sought the change after two sets of divorced parents disagreed over where their soldier sons should be buried.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2005/jul/06/070610105.html

[orleans]

6. all the papers should report this

make the kids think twice (and their parents) before signing on the dotted line

[billyoc]

7. Run this pic with it, too.

[saigon68]

8. SPIRIT THEM HOME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

PLANT THEM QUICKLY, IN THE BACK FORTY, WITHOUT FANFARE.

FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH


A. "DID THE METS WIN TODAY ?"

B. "HOW DID YOUR STOCK DO ON THE MARKET TODAY ?"

[bobo4u]

9. Why not have them sent to the White House c/o George Bush. EOM

[jmowreader]

10. This is NOT picking someone to drag your dead ass off the battlefield

"Designating someone to handle your remains" means telling the army "this is who I want to make my funeral and burial arrangements."

Let's take my grandmother. She died in May of really old age, and had two children: my mother, and another daughter who died three years ago of kidney complications and who left a widower and seven children.

Uncle E. lives in Seattle, so naturally he wanted grandma buried in Seattle.

Unfortunately for Uncle E., everyone else she knew lives in Idaho.

If grandma hadn't designated someone to handle her remains, grandma would probably have been buried in a fundy church cemetery in Seattle because Uncle E's new wife is an attorney and they're fundamentalists. (Fundamentalist WHAT is an open question, because he's been in at least ten different fundie faiths, but every time he sees me or any of his children we get damned to hell for something trivial--needless to say, I don't actively seek out his company. If this fucker moved below the Mason-Dixon line, he'd be taking up serpents within two weeks.) But because grandma designated her only living daughter, grandma is buried in a Catholic cemetery in Idaho.

Seeing as how Republicans can't stay married, making the troops designate someone to handle their remains is good.