Items of Note

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"Two Soldiers: How the dead come home"

Dan Baum, The New Yorker, August 2004

This piece stood out, for me, because of the level of detail regarding the incident, the response of the troops, the response of the families, as well as how the dead are treated:

"In non-viewable cases, the Dover or Landstuhl morticians inject each body part individually with embalming fluid and gather the pieces in a sheet that has been impregnated with embalming chemicals. They wrap this in a second sheet, and finally in a standard-issue olive-green Army blanket. They fold the blanket in a distinctive cruciform fashion, secure it with large safety pins, and place the bundle in a casket. They arrange the decorated uniform on the bundle of remains, so that when the family looks inside the casket they see the correct uniform, more or less in the shape of a soldier."

Link (posted 13 Aug 05)