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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Family mourns a final indignity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Patti Saylor, whose son, Paul, was killed in Iraq, has started a Web site with other family members urging better preservation of fallen soldiers.
When Patti Saylor learned last August that her son had died in a vehicle rollover accident in Iraq, she took some comfort in the fact that he hadn’t been blown up by a roadside bomb.
At least she would be able to see him one last time to say goodbye, she thought.
The kindergarten teacher was shocked when the body of Sgt. Paul Saylor of the 48th Brigade Combat Team was returned to Bremen too decomposed even for a private viewing. The local funeral director, Paul’s high school wrestling coach, was able to assure her that the body was her son because his nose was recognizable.
Saylor wants to know how her son’s remains could have been in such poor condition just three days after he died. After months of asking questions and meeting with military officials, the Saylor family has launched an effort to get a mortuary facility set up in the Middle East so that fallen soldiers can be embalmed before they return to the United States.
Last month, they launched a Web site — www.soldiersplea.com — that has logged more than 3,700 signatures supporting their cause.
“We’re just fighting so it doesn’t happen to another family,” said Patti Saylor.
“This is not a political statement. This is about taking care of young men and women who are doing their duty.”
Many unviewable
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Republican from Marietta, has been looking into the Saylors’ concerns. Last week, he visited Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies of the dead are returned from the war zone. Autopsies and embalming are performed at Dover before bodies are sent on to their families for burial.
Gingrey said Dover officials told him that about 2 percent of dead soldiers and contractors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — about 39 overall — have arrived there too decomposed to be viewed by family members.
The current practice is to pack the remains of dead soldiers in ice while in the war zone to preserve them on their journey back to the United States. “I think, as I’ve studied this case, we can do a better job on that,” said Gingrey, who met with the Saylor family Tuesday. “I truly believe that we can do a better job and hopefully that percentage can be reduced close to zero.”
Gingrey said he would study the issue further. He said he was undecided about whether he would support embalming of fallen soldiers overseas, in part because he’s unsure whether it would hamper efforts to perform thorough autopsies at Dover.
Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, spokesman for the Army’s Human Resources Command, which oversees the Casualty Memorial Affairs Operations Center, said the soldiers who collect and prepare the bodies of their fallen comrades in Iraq do their best.
“There is never an intent to treat them with less than the honor and dignity they deserve,” Arata said.
Open casket services
Saylor, a 21-year-old Georgia National Guard soldier, died on Aug. 15 when his Humvee rolled into a canal. Sgt. Thomas J. Strickland, 27, of Douglasville and Spc. Joshua P. Dingler, 19, of Hiram also were killed in the accident. All three were members of the 48th Brigade. The funeral directors who handled local arrangements for Strickland and Dingler said they were able to have open casket services.
Army documents provided by the Saylor family show that when his body arrived at a medical facility in Iraq around 7 a.m. on Aug. 15, the temperature outside was 86 degrees. A little more than an hour later, the temperature had climbed to 101 degrees. Another Army report shows that Saylor’s body arrived at Dover on Aug. 18 in “advanced stages of decomposition.”
In a letter dated Jan. 4, Army officials state that an investigation found that Saylor’s body was packed in ice for transport to Dover. However, the letter states that the decomposition process was accelerated because Saylor’s body was submerged in water for several hours and temperatures in Iraq were extreme at the time.
Bill Hightower, funeral director at Hightower Funeral Home in Bremen, said ice doesn’t cool bodies enough to preserve them well in extremely high temperatures. Hightower, who handled the Saylor funeral, said packing bodies in ice “is Third World country to me in the handling of our fallen soldiers.”
Hightower said he discussed the Saylor case with his father, who planned funerals for fallen soldiers from World War II, and his father was “disheartened” by the details.
Embalming machines cost $1,000 to $2,000, Hightower said. He added that as long as blood samples are taken, bodies can be embalmed without interfering with the ability to perform an autopsy and do DNA testing later.
Patti Saylor wants the military to set up a mortuary facility in Iraq or Kuwait. She knows that soldiers in other wars have been buried in foreign soil or sent home in the cargo holds of ships. But times change and the U.S. government can afford to do better, she said.
Her sister, Linda Kirkland, said the family had an especially hard time accepting Paul’s death because he had just been home on leave. He returned to Iraq less than a week before he died.
Not getting to view his body made it even harder to believe he was gone.
“That wasn’t him,” Kirkland said. “That’s just a box. We hugged the box.”
Saddam Hussein’s fake palace
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeremy Redmon/AJC
One of Saddam Hussein's many presidential complexes, the Al-Faw Palace now serves as the headquarters of Multi-National Corps Iraq. Much of it consists of cheap materials; the chandelier in this atrium is part plastic.
Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq — It may look ritzy and sophisticated, but much of this palace is fake.
Once one of Saddam Hussein’s many presidential complexes, the Al-Faw Palace is now the nerve center for all U.S. land forces in Iraq. Dozens of U.S. military personnel work inside the cavernous building.
As with other such palaces built to honor Hussein, Al-Faw consists of cheap materials and questionable construction.
A gaudy throne sits in the rotunda, given to Saddam by Yasser Arafat. The inlay on it, according to military historians, reads: “Victory from God and success is near.”
Suspended high above is a huge chandelier that appears to be solid glass. But military experts say much of the fixture is plastic. Many of the banisters resemble carved marble but are really gypsum. Elaborate reliefs made to look like marble are really concrete. The Arabic script in parts of the palace appears to be gold but is actually gilded brass. Even the lake just outside the palace is artificial.
“It’s like the bizarre love child between Tony Soprano and Elvis,” said Maj. Todd Breasseale, 38, of Venice, Calif., who handles media relations for Multi-National Corps Iraq.
The complex was built to commemorate the battle for the Al-Faw peninsula in the Iran-Iraq war, according to a U.S. military report. Thousands died in that campaign. But only Saddam’s initials are carved into various parts of the building.
In 1998, Iraq came under additional scrutiny by the United States when it declared the palace off limits to United Nations arms inspectors. During the invasion five years later, the U.S. military destroyed a utility bridge to the complex with two 2,000-pound bombs. A 5,000-pound bomb pounded the back of the palace, where it was believed Saddam had an office.
After the invasion, U.S. soldiers discovered what appeared to be gold bars in the basement of the complex. They tested them, according to military historians. And, of course, they turned out to be made of lead.
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Lotion soothes body, mind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeremy Redmon/AJC
Don't tease Spc. James Braun about his "Moonlight Path" body cream. He isn't listening. He is thinking about his wife back home in Columbus.
Camp Rustamiyah, Baghdad — Sometimes a guy could use a little “Moonlight Path” body lotion in Iraq.
Its “romantic” and “heady scents of a garden at midnight” can take a soldier’s mind off the war. And the cream’s “naturally pampering” ingredients can soothe hands worn and cracked by heavy machine guns.
Spc. James Braun, 20, of Columbus, said he isn’t bothered by the teasing he gets from other soldiers about his little purple bottle of lotion.
“I think they are jealous. I really don’t pay attention to them,” said Braun, of the Ft. Benning-based 988th Military Police Company, which is training Iraqi police.
He said his wife, Jessica, gave it to him as a parting gift as they rode to the airport on his way to Iraq.
“She said, ‘Don’t let anyone harass you about this.
This is what I use all the time,’” he recalled.
Braun wears gloves that make his skin raw while he grips a .50-caliber machine gun on a Humvee. He keeps the bottle of lotion rolled up in his cap by his feet.
“It reminds me of the way she smells. Every time I look at the bottle, it reminds me of my wife,” he said.
The couple has been married for two years. They have a 13-month-old daughter named Avril.
Braun’s unit has been in Iraq for about a month. A quarter of his magic cream is already gone.
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