The cremated remains of persons killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the Pentagon and of others who died in the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., were disposed of in a Virginia landfill, Defense Department officials said Tuesday.
An investigation by retired Army Gen. John Abizaid found that the mortuary at the Dover Air Force Base had acted inappropriately when it allowed “several portions of remains” from those killed on 9/11 to be taken to the landfill. Last year, the Air Force admitted that partial, unidentified remains of at least 274 troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq were disposed of in landfills by the Dover mortuary.
Abizaid declined to estimate how many victims of the 9/11 attacks in Washington and Pennsylvania had their remains disposed of in a landfill. The remains were too badly incinerated or too small for DNA testing, officials said.
The revelation has disturbed family members of victims, and shocked members of the military, who said it was disrespectful to mistreat remains of people who died in the service of their country.
Retired Air Force Staff Sgt. Thomas Meehan, whose daughter Colleen Ann Meehan Barkow was killed at the age of 26 in the World Trade Center, said he understands the pain both service members and 9/11 victims’ families are registering.
“It’s difficult for the families who didn’t receive the remains of their loved ones to wonder what happened to them,” said Meehan, who believes that unidentified remains of his daughter and other victims of the World Trade Center ended up in a New York City landfill when they could not be identified. “It’s an unforgivable sin to know that their remains are in an unholy, unconsecrated landfill with garbage, even a decade later.”
Meehan added, “We were fortunate — our son-in-law got some of her remains back, but not all. Some families will be waiting an eternity. It’s an unforgivable sin to know that their remains are in an unholy, unconsecrated landmass, among garbage.”
After the remains were cremated, Dover officials gave them to a biomedical waste disposal contractor and believed that “after final incineration, nothing remained,” the report stated. However, there was still small parts left over from the incineration.
In 2008 the mortuary changed its policy, and unidentified cremated remains are buried at sea.
Abizaid said that putting more power in the hands of the Air Force commander and providing stronger and consistent oversight will help alleviate the problems and eliminate errors.
“Confidence has been lost in these organizations to care properly for our fallen; we must restore that confidence,” he said.
Former Coast Guard Ensign John Brink, of Annapolis, said rebuilding that confidence is going to take time.
“Why wasn’t there a system already in place to handle the remains with dignity?” Brink asked. “There should be a place where you can put body parts of those unidentified service members together, and the same goes for the victims. But to dump them in a landfill with tables, chairs, and garbage — that’s just not right.”
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
