Pentagon Quits Cremating Troops Alongside Pets

Military remains had been sent to facility handling animals
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 10, 2008 10:55 AM CDT
Pentagon Quits Cremating Troops Alongside Pets
Army staff director Lt. Gen. David Huntoon speaks during a news conference Friday. Huntoon will visit an Air Force base where troops' remains were sent to be cremated near animals'.    (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

The Pentagon will stop sending fallen troops to a crematorium that also handles pets, McClatchy reports. A Delaware Air Force base had been sending the bodies of troops killed in battle to a crematorium that had two separate facilities, one for humans, another for pets. The move was prompted by complaints from a soldier who accompanied the body of a friend and noticed the pet facility.

While no human remains were cremated in the pet facility, a Pentagon rep said Defense Secretary Robert Gates felt that "it's inappropriate to cremate our fallen, our heroes in a facility that also cremates pets. The families of the fallen have the secretary’s deepest apology.” (Read more Pentagon stories.)

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