thedrifter
09-24-07, 08:08 AM
Monday September 24, 2007
Soldier has memories he'd sometimes like to forget
By JOSHUA BOWMAN
joshua.bowman@herald-mail.com
HAGERSTOWN - Cpl. John Myers remembers with photographic clarity the first soldier he ever prepared for burial.
The body of the U.S. Marine killed by a bomb in Iraq in the fall of 2004 was almost unrecognizable, Myers said.
"It was like a jigsaw puzzle. We literally had to untangle his arms and legs."
Myers remembers in detail only a few of the roughly 240 bodies he has seen in his job with the Marines' mortuary affairs division, which works to identify, recover and prepare the bodies of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq.
The soldiers who serve in the division remove the bodies from the battlefield and prepare them for the flight home, where they will be buried.
"It's a unique job. A lot of people don't even know it exists," said Myers, who returned home from Iraq last Thursday.
Attention to detail
The 29-year-old from Hagerstown has served two seven-month tours in Iraq since 2004, both with mortuary affairs.
He said the work, "is either fascinating or disgusting, depending on your perspective."
When the company is called to the battlefield, its first job is to identify the dead soldier.
Wallets are searched and comrades are questioned until a name is found.
Equipment and other personal effects also are collected.
"You don't want to leave anything out there," Myers said.
Bodies are then brought to Al Asad in industrial-size refrigerators (reefers, as they are called).
The deceased must be kept between 34 and 40 degrees - a difficult task in the Iraqi desert, where temperatures can reach 120 degrees.
Forty pounds of ice are placed on the body, near - but not too close to - the face.
"If you freeze the body, and especially the face, it makes an autopsy much more difficult," Myers said.
When the bodies arrive in Al Asad, they are taken to a large room with stretchers and metal tables where the remains and personal effects are cataloged.
There is paperwork for every step of the process.
Fingerprint records, death certificates and forms itemizing personal belongings must be kept in perfect detail, Myers said, primarily because they can be requested by the families of dead soldiers.
The deceased are then placed in temporary caskets draped with American flags. Those caskets are walked to a plane, and the bodies are flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where they are autopsied and embalmed.
While the military cannot hold ceremonies in Iraq for the deceased, everything is done with "military movement" and an incredible attention to detail, Myers said.
The casket handles are sprayed with WD-40 to prevent creaking and the smallest creases are ironed out of the flags.
Caskets are taken to the plane with two lines of soldiers on either side. Engines are turned off, and all other movement ceases.
"These soldiers gave the ultimate sacrifice you can give. It's our job to treat their bodies with the utmost respect," Myers said.
Setting an example
Myers, like all mortuary affairs personnel, is a reservist.
He said full-time soldiers cannot work in the division because, "in peacetime, there wouldn't be much to do."
He joined the Marines 4 1/2 years ago, primarily because of the events of 9/11.
As a father of two, he said he wanted to set a good example for his family.
"I wanted them to see me serving the country," said Myers, who also works as a correctional officer at MCTC.
For Myers' first deployment to Iraq in 2004, the Marines asked him to join a newly created company with the euphemistic title of Personnel Retrieval and Processing.
The company would be responsible for gathering bodies from the battlefield and preparing them for the flight home, he was told.
After some preliminary training, Myers flew to Al Taqaddum, Iraq, where he learned how to prepare corpses in the field, on the fly.
"It was hectic and new. I had never done anything like it," he said.
Myers estimated that his company prepared about 200 bodies during his first seven-month tour, which overlapped with the battle of Fallujah.
"There was a lot of heavy fighting during that period," he said.
Before his second tour in February 2007, Myers and the rest of his colleagues were given formal training in Fort Lee, Va.
They learned navigation and fingerprinting skills, visited a Richmond, Va., morgue and did autopsies.
They learned how to treat a battlefield like a crime scene by collecting evidence and any items that might help them identify bodies.
"We went back much more formally prepared than we were the first time," he said.
Myers said his company handled about 40 corpses during his second seven-month tour.
Of those, only half were U.S. military.
The rest were Iraqi police, Army and civilians, which the Marine company prepares for the Iraqi Foreign Affairs office.
Myers said at first it was difficult to treat the bodies of Iraqis with the same respect as those of U.S. military.
"I felt a lot of anger toward the Iraqis during my first tour because I didn't see them picking up their share of the fight," Myers said.
He said things changed during his second tour, when his company saw an increase in the number of Iraqi bodies coming in.
"To us, that showed that the Iraqis were taking on a larger role in this war."
An analytical approach
Overall, Myers takes an analytical approach to his unique job in the military.
He has no qualms about discussing the most grisly aspects of his job and describes them with clinical dispassion.
Still, he said some things can be difficult.
Myers said during the preparation of that first body in 2004, he recoiled at the sight of the U.S. soldier's uniform.
"In training, you see corpses in bad condition. But to see someone in a uniform just like you, it is a much more personal thing."
Myers said he makes it a point when he goes through soldiers' wallets to turn over pictures they might have of themselves or their family.
"I don't want to have to think about who they were," Myers said.
Myers said it was just as hard, but for different reasons, to prepare the bodies of detainees or insurgents, which his company was sometimes asked to do.
"When you know an insurgent has just killed four of your comrades with a bomb in his vest, it can be hard to give that body the same respect you give a U.S. soldier. It takes a lot of discipline," Myers said.
Myers said his company of about 200 soldiers talked about everything during his two seven-month tours in an effort to relieve some of the weight of the work.
"We would talk about anything that came to mind, which was very therapeutic," Myers said.
The discussions also forged a bond between the men in the company, whose relationships with other soldiers often were strained.
"What we do, for a lot of servicemen, it's not good for the morale of the troops. Many of them don't want anything to do with us."
When coming home, however, Myers said he was received with warmth by fellow soldiers.
"They know the work you do is important, and they support you in it," he said.
Myers said one of the most memorable moments of his service occurred during a training session in Dover.
His company visited the Air Force base there to do autopsies and learn embalming techniques.
During that training session, Myers said a woman came to pick up her brother, a soldier who had been killed in Iraq the week before. With tears running down her face, the woman saluted every soldier who worked on her brother's body.
"We work so hard not to think about the people we work on," he said. "But to come home and to see that, it made the circle complete. It made me realize how important our work is."
Ellie
Soldier has memories he'd sometimes like to forget
By JOSHUA BOWMAN
joshua.bowman@herald-mail.com
HAGERSTOWN - Cpl. John Myers remembers with photographic clarity the first soldier he ever prepared for burial.
The body of the U.S. Marine killed by a bomb in Iraq in the fall of 2004 was almost unrecognizable, Myers said.
"It was like a jigsaw puzzle. We literally had to untangle his arms and legs."
Myers remembers in detail only a few of the roughly 240 bodies he has seen in his job with the Marines' mortuary affairs division, which works to identify, recover and prepare the bodies of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq.
The soldiers who serve in the division remove the bodies from the battlefield and prepare them for the flight home, where they will be buried.
"It's a unique job. A lot of people don't even know it exists," said Myers, who returned home from Iraq last Thursday.
Attention to detail
The 29-year-old from Hagerstown has served two seven-month tours in Iraq since 2004, both with mortuary affairs.
He said the work, "is either fascinating or disgusting, depending on your perspective."
When the company is called to the battlefield, its first job is to identify the dead soldier.
Wallets are searched and comrades are questioned until a name is found.
Equipment and other personal effects also are collected.
"You don't want to leave anything out there," Myers said.
Bodies are then brought to Al Asad in industrial-size refrigerators (reefers, as they are called).
The deceased must be kept between 34 and 40 degrees - a difficult task in the Iraqi desert, where temperatures can reach 120 degrees.
Forty pounds of ice are placed on the body, near - but not too close to - the face.
"If you freeze the body, and especially the face, it makes an autopsy much more difficult," Myers said.
When the bodies arrive in Al Asad, they are taken to a large room with stretchers and metal tables where the remains and personal effects are cataloged.
There is paperwork for every step of the process.
Fingerprint records, death certificates and forms itemizing personal belongings must be kept in perfect detail, Myers said, primarily because they can be requested by the families of dead soldiers.
The deceased are then placed in temporary caskets draped with American flags. Those caskets are walked to a plane, and the bodies are flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where they are autopsied and embalmed.
While the military cannot hold ceremonies in Iraq for the deceased, everything is done with "military movement" and an incredible attention to detail, Myers said.
The casket handles are sprayed with WD-40 to prevent creaking and the smallest creases are ironed out of the flags.
Caskets are taken to the plane with two lines of soldiers on either side. Engines are turned off, and all other movement ceases.
"These soldiers gave the ultimate sacrifice you can give. It's our job to treat their bodies with the utmost respect," Myers said.
Setting an example
Myers, like all mortuary affairs personnel, is a reservist.
He said full-time soldiers cannot work in the division because, "in peacetime, there wouldn't be much to do."
He joined the Marines 4 1/2 years ago, primarily because of the events of 9/11.
As a father of two, he said he wanted to set a good example for his family.
"I wanted them to see me serving the country," said Myers, who also works as a correctional officer at MCTC.
For Myers' first deployment to Iraq in 2004, the Marines asked him to join a newly created company with the euphemistic title of Personnel Retrieval and Processing.
The company would be responsible for gathering bodies from the battlefield and preparing them for the flight home, he was told.
After some preliminary training, Myers flew to Al Taqaddum, Iraq, where he learned how to prepare corpses in the field, on the fly.
"It was hectic and new. I had never done anything like it," he said.
Myers estimated that his company prepared about 200 bodies during his first seven-month tour, which overlapped with the battle of Fallujah.
"There was a lot of heavy fighting during that period," he said.
Before his second tour in February 2007, Myers and the rest of his colleagues were given formal training in Fort Lee, Va.
They learned navigation and fingerprinting skills, visited a Richmond, Va., morgue and did autopsies.
They learned how to treat a battlefield like a crime scene by collecting evidence and any items that might help them identify bodies.
"We went back much more formally prepared than we were the first time," he said.
Myers said his company handled about 40 corpses during his second seven-month tour.
Of those, only half were U.S. military.
The rest were Iraqi police, Army and civilians, which the Marine company prepares for the Iraqi Foreign Affairs office.
Myers said at first it was difficult to treat the bodies of Iraqis with the same respect as those of U.S. military.
"I felt a lot of anger toward the Iraqis during my first tour because I didn't see them picking up their share of the fight," Myers said.
He said things changed during his second tour, when his company saw an increase in the number of Iraqi bodies coming in.
"To us, that showed that the Iraqis were taking on a larger role in this war."
An analytical approach
Overall, Myers takes an analytical approach to his unique job in the military.
He has no qualms about discussing the most grisly aspects of his job and describes them with clinical dispassion.
Still, he said some things can be difficult.
Myers said during the preparation of that first body in 2004, he recoiled at the sight of the U.S. soldier's uniform.
"In training, you see corpses in bad condition. But to see someone in a uniform just like you, it is a much more personal thing."
Myers said he makes it a point when he goes through soldiers' wallets to turn over pictures they might have of themselves or their family.
"I don't want to have to think about who they were," Myers said.
Myers said it was just as hard, but for different reasons, to prepare the bodies of detainees or insurgents, which his company was sometimes asked to do.
"When you know an insurgent has just killed four of your comrades with a bomb in his vest, it can be hard to give that body the same respect you give a U.S. soldier. It takes a lot of discipline," Myers said.
Myers said his company of about 200 soldiers talked about everything during his two seven-month tours in an effort to relieve some of the weight of the work.
"We would talk about anything that came to mind, which was very therapeutic," Myers said.
The discussions also forged a bond between the men in the company, whose relationships with other soldiers often were strained.
"What we do, for a lot of servicemen, it's not good for the morale of the troops. Many of them don't want anything to do with us."
When coming home, however, Myers said he was received with warmth by fellow soldiers.
"They know the work you do is important, and they support you in it," he said.
Myers said one of the most memorable moments of his service occurred during a training session in Dover.
His company visited the Air Force base there to do autopsies and learn embalming techniques.
During that training session, Myers said a woman came to pick up her brother, a soldier who had been killed in Iraq the week before. With tears running down her face, the woman saluted every soldier who worked on her brother's body.
"We work so hard not to think about the people we work on," he said. "But to come home and to see that, it made the circle complete. It made me realize how important our work is."
Ellie