Actually, that headline doesn’t cover this whole story. The original item from last month detailed the Air Force dumping troops’ cremated ashes in a Virginia landfill. The current story indicates they dumped more than originally acknowledged, and don’t plan to determine to whom this happened.
“It would require a massive effort and time to recall records and research individually,” Jo Ann Rooney, the Pentagon’s acting undersecretary for personnel, wrote in a Nov. 22 letter to Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.).
“What the hell?” Holt said in a phone interview. “We spent millions, tens of millions, to find any trace of soldiers killed, and they’re concerned about a ‘massive’ effort to go back and pull out the files and find out how many soldiers were disrespected this way?” He added: “They just don’t want to ask questions or look very hard.”
Bravo to my former Representative (and the only literal rocket scientist in Congress) Rush Holt. “What the hell?” is exactly the right response. It would “require a massive effort”? Then the Pentagon better undertake a massive goddamned effort. This is truly shameful.
