Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations (AFMAO) is a

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

mortuary affairs unit located in the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at

Dover Air Force Base Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), located southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware. 436th AW is the host wing and runs the busiest and largest a ...

in Dover,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

. AFMAO combines the functions of both Air Force Mortuary Affairs and Port Mortuary, and was historically known as Dover Port Mortuary. AFMAO houses the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

' only port

mortuary A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...

, the largest mortuary under the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

(DoD), and the only DoD mortuary located in the

continental United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

. The facility is named for mortician Charles C. Carson.

Operations

AFMAO is a Field Operating Agency under the Deputy Chief of Staff, Manpower, Personnel and Services, Headquarters Air Force. AFMAO provides global contingency mortuary response teams in support of Air Force and combatant command requirements, supporting both an Air Force and joint role. It is AFMAO's mission and privilege to fulfill the nation's sacred commitment of ensuring dignity, honor and respect to the fallen, and care, service and support to their families. The mortuary staff prepares the remains of U.S. service members, as well as government officials and their families stationed abroad in Europe and Southwest Asia.

History

Air Force mortuary missions have been attached to many organizations and locations over the years. The mortuary mission in Delaware dates to 1955, when the Port Mortuary was established at Dover. Prior to the establishment of AFMAO, the port mortuary at Dover was a flight under the 436th Services Squadron. In 2001, the Dover Port Mortuary became the sole port mortuary in the continental U.S. after the mortuary at Travis Air Force Base in California closed. In 2003, the new Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs replaced the 48-year-old facility that had been in use since 1955 to identify and process the remains of over 50,000 service members. The new $30 million mortuary is . In recognition of dedicated and committed services for over two decades, Dover Air Force Base named its mortuary after Charles C. Carson. AFMAO became a named activity of the Headquarters Air Force, Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, Services and Manpower Dec. 15, 2008. Shortly thereafter, the Headquarters Air Force Mortuary Affairs function transferred from the Air Force Services Agency, San Antonio, Texas to join the new organization. AFMAO became a Field Operating Agency May 1, 2014, aligning it directly under Headquarters Air Force leadership. In 2010, Operating Location Europe was established at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. In June 2019, Operating Location Pacific was established at Hickam Field, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oahu, Hawaii. In January 2020, AFMAO assumed administrative and operational control of OLP-Yokota, located at Yokota Air Base, Japan. The mortuary was used in 1978 for the victims of the

Jonestown The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, a U.S.–based cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationall ...

mass murder-suicide, in 1986 for identifying the remains of the crew of the

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, and in 2003 for the crew of the

Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the upper North American Pacific coast and the female personif ...

. It was also a major site for identifying the remains of military personnel killed in the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

2011 investigation

In 2011, a federal investigation by the

United States Office of Special Counsel The United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose basic legislative authority comes from four federal statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Pr ...

found the center had committed "gross mismanagement" of remains, including losing body parts, sawing off the damaged arm bone of a soldier – without telling his family – so he would fit in a casket, and lax supervision. Three supervisors were disciplined but not removed from duty. Hanging up a freshly pressed U

The Special Counsel investigation found that Air Force officials had attempted to silence whistleblowers by firing them from their jobs, had falsified records, and lied to investigators. The investigation was critical of the Air Force for, in investigators' opinions, not accepting full blame for the misconduct and trying to cover it up. Colonel Robert H. Edmondson, commander of the facility from January 2009 to October 2010 was reprimanded but allowed to remain in the Air Force. Quinton R. “Randy” Keel, division director at the mortuary, was demoted in August 2011 and reassigned to a different position at the base before eventually resigning. The Special Council report was critical of the Air Force for allowing all to remain employed by the service. In response, the USAF convened a board, led by

John Abizaid John Philip Abizaid (born April 1, 1951) is a retired United States Army general and former United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander who served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2021. Abizaid retired after 34 ...

, to review the mortuary's operations. A subsequent ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' investigation revealed in December 2011 that the center had disposed of the cremated remains of 274 US military personnel in the King George County Landfill in Virginia. The remains were dumped in the landfill between 2004 and 2008. An investigation by the US Office of Special Counsel found in January 2012 that mortuary officials had retaliated against four civilian whistleblowers involved in the issue by trying to fire two of the civilians and suspending the other two. The Office recommended further disciplinary action against Keel and said it would do so itself if the USAF failed to do so. The USAF replied that it would impose stronger discipline on Edmondson. On 21 May 2012, the USAF announced that it had given Edmondson a formal reprimand and fined him $7,000 and was allowed to remain in his positions. In June 2012, three of the civilian whistleblowers who had suffered retaliation, James G. Parsons Sr., Mary Ellen Spera, and William Zwicharowski, were honored as "public servants of the year" by the

. In February 2012 it was revealed that the mortuary had improperly disposed of remains of

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

victims in a landfill. According to ''

'', mortuary and Dover officials suggested disposing of the remains at sea, but were overruled by an unidentified USAF officer at Air Mobility Command and officers at the US Army's Personnel Command, who directed that the remains be disposed of as medical waste.Whitlock, Craig, "Mortuary Urged Not Dumping 9/11 Remains At Landfill", ''

'', 7 March 2012, p. 3.

References

External links

* {{coord, 39.1317, -75.4867, display=title Funeral-related industry Buildings and structures in Dover, Delaware Installations of the U.S. Department of Defense Centers of the United States Air Force