Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Tuesday commended the Air Force for the “thoroughness” of its investigation. His spokesman, George Little, said Wednesday that Panetta is leaving “open the possibility for further accountability” and that “there is no excuse for this kind of incident to occur.”
Under military culture and regulations, the armed services have a special obligation to care for fallen troops and their families. All troops killed overseas return to Dover in flag-draped transfer cases and are honored in what the military calls a “dignified transfer” ceremony.
Smith,spent more than four years trying to find out what happened to her husband’s remaining body parts before she learned of the landfill disposal. Sgt. 1st Class Scott R. Smith served more than 16 years in the Army and volunteered for dangerous duty defusing and destroying bombs in Iraq.
He was killed when stepped on a pressure plate that triggered a buried bomb.
Initially, Gari-Lynn Smith said she was led to believe that her husband’s entire body was returned for the funeral. When Dover officials told her that his body was too badly mangled for an open-casket funeral, she said she became worried that some of his remains had not been buried with the casket.
“I knew he was blown up and had amputated limbs, but I was not getting a straight answer from the Air Force about what had happened to his body,” Smith said.
She received her husband’s autopsy report in 2007 and learned that some remains had not been found in time to include in the casket.
Shortly after Scott Smith’s death, his parents had filled out a Defense Department form giving the Air Force permission to “make appropriate disposition” of any partial remains discovered after the body was buried, according to Pentagon records.
Gari-Lynn Smith said she believed that Dover officials would treat the remains with respect. The deceased soldier’s parents declined to comment.
In April, Trevor Dean, a senior official at the Dover mortuary, informed her in a letter that some of her husband’s body parts were cremated and dumped in a landfill in King George County. In the letter, Dean listed her husband’s first name incorrectly, an oversight that Smith saw as yet another sign of disregard for her spouse.
“This has been nothing but a nightmare,” she said.
Dean was formerly the top civilian deputy at the mortuary. The Air Force said he received a lower pay grade and voluntarily accepted a transfer to a lesser position in September as a result of separate allegations of mishandling of remains. He still works at Dover.
In an e-mail Wednesday, Dean declined to comment about the Smith case or the landfill practices. “We are pleased with the positive change in the program,” he said in reference to reforms the Air Force says it has implemented at the mortuary.
Relatives of other service members whose remains were mishandled at Dover said Wednesday that they were shocked to learn of the errors.
Stan McDowell, the father of Capt. Mark R. McDowell, who died in an F-15E fighter jet crash in Afghanistan in July 2009, said the Air Force informed him Saturday that it couldn’t account for a four-inch piece of flesh that may have belonged to his son.
“They were very apologetic, and it was all heartfelt,” Stan McDowell said. “We know Mark was a Christian, and that he’s in heaven. So we look at it like — okay, so maybe there are some remains that did not end up in his burial site. . . . That’s not really a concern to us. And the reason is: We know Mark is separated from his body, and that he’s in heaven.”
The Air Force said it was uncertain whether the missing piece of flesh belonged to McDowell or his friend, Air Force Capt. Thomas J. Gramith, who was killed in the same jet crash. The other remains of the two airmen are buried together, under the same headstone, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Patricia O’Kane-Trombley, Gramith’s mother, said she was assured by the Air Force’s promises to ensure that something like this never happens again. “I don’t like mix-ups. Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “If Tom were here, he’d say, ‘What can we do to make this better?’ ”
Staff writer Christian Davenport and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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