Pentagon Quits Cremating Troops Alongside Pets

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.” (More Pentagon stories.)