Army rehearses temporary battlefield burial procedures

The U.S. Army rehearsed temporary battlefield burial procedures during Phase II of Operation Dragon Covenant in North Carolina, using simulated remains to practise preserving them for later identification and return to families. The exercise involved engineers, preventive medicine teams, chaplains and fatality management specialists. Soldiers used heavy equipment to dig and refill trenches without damaging mock remains made from skeletal models and water containers. The training was designed for circumstances in which remains cannot be evacuated safely or promptly during a conflict. According to the Army, D6 bulldozer operators excavated a trench for 20 simulated remains in an average of one hour and 15 minutes. Based on that timing, the Army estimated that a properly equipped engineer company operating continuously could dig and cover trenches for up to 2,400 remains in 24 hours. That is a planning estimate, not a casualty count or a report of completed burials. The drill also exposed a problem with existing Army doctrine. Its specifications call for seven feet between burial rows, but engineers found that spacing too narrow for bulldozers to manoeuvre without disturbing the...