Report: Air Force Mortuary Mishandled War Dead Remains

WASHINGTON – The Air Force mortuary that receives America's war dead and prepares them for burial lost portions of human remains twice in 2009, prompting the Air Force to discipline three officials for "gross mismanagement," officials said Tuesday.

A year-long Air Force investigation reviewed 14 sets of allegations of improper handling of war remains as reported by three whistleblower workers at Dover Air Force Base, Del. That is where all war dead are received from foreign battlefields to be formally identified, autopsied and prepared for transfer to their families.

The Air Force inspector general found no violations of law or regulation in any of the 14 cases, but he cited a series of failures by top officials that seriously undermined the mortuary work of the Air Force, which views the Dover mission as one of its most important duties to military members and their families.

A parallel probe by the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency, took a harsher view of the events at Dover and sharply questioned the Air Force's "failure to acknowledge culpability for wrongdoing."

In a report submitted to the White House on Tuesday, the special counsel said some of the Air Force's conclusions "do not appear reasonable" and in some cases are not supported by available evidence.

"In these instances the report demonstrates a pattern of the Air Force's failure to acknowledge culpability for wrongdoing relating to the treatmentt "the best option" -- did not violate rules. Nonetheless, the practice has been stopped.

None of the three Air Force officials found to be at fault at Dover was fired.

The Air Force commander at Dover, Col. Robert H. Edmondson, received a letter of reprimand and was put in a staff job at the Pentagon. Trevor Dean, who was Edmondson's top civilian deputy at Dover, took a different job at Dover in a lower pay grade. Quinton "Randy" Keel, who was director of the mortuary division at Dover, also was reassigned at Dover in a non-supervisory position.

The three workers who lodged the allegations are still employed at Dover.