Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations (AFMAO) is a U.S. Air Force mortuary affairs unit located in the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. [1] 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' only port mortuary, the largest mortuary under the Department of Defense (DoD), and the only DoD mortuary located in the continental United States. [2] The facility is named for mortician Charles C. Carson.
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. [1]
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 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2). [3] 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 15 Dec. 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 1 May 2014, aligning it directly under Headquarters Air Force leadership. [4]
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 mass murder-suicide, in 1986 for identifying the remains of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and in 2003 for the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was also a major site for identifying the remains of military personnel killed in the 9/11 attacks.[ citation needed ]
In 2011, a federal investigation by the United States Office of Special Counsel found the center had committed "gross mismanagement" of remains, [5] 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. [6] [7]
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. [8] The Special Council report was critical of the Air Force for allowing all to remain employed by the service. [6] [9] [10] [11] [12] In response, the USAF convened a board, led by John Abizaid, to review the mortuary's operations. [13]
A subsequent The Washington Post 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. [14] [15]
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. [16] The USAF replied that it would impose stronger discipline on Edmondson. [17] [18] 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. [19] 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 United States Office of Special Counsel. [20]
In February 2012 it was revealed that the mortuary had improperly disposed of remains of September 11 attacks victims in a landfill. [21] [22] According to The Washington Post , 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. [23]
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 Signal Corps, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces in 1947 with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.
The White House Fellows program is a non-partisan federal fellowship established via executive order by President Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964. The fellowship is one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service, offering exceptional Americans first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. The fellowship was founded based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Corporation and later the sixth secretary of health, education, and welfare.
Frank Warren Snepp, III is a journalist and former chief analyst of North Vietnamese strategy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Saigon during the Vietnam War. For five out of his eight years as a CIA officer, he worked as interrogator, agent debriefer, and chief strategy analyst in the United States Embassy, Saigon; he was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work. Snepp is a former producer for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, California. He was one of the first whistle blowers who revealed the inner workings, secrets and failures of the national security services in the 1970s. As a result of a loss in a 1980 court case brought by the CIA, all of Snepp's publications require prior approval by the CIA.
Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force (USAF) base under the operational control of Air Mobility Command (AMC), located 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware. The 436th Airlift Wing is the host wing and runs the busiest and largest air freight terminal in the Department of Defense.
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 Protection Act, the Hatch Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). OSC's primary mission is the safeguarding of the merit system in federal employment by protecting employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices (PPPs), especially reprisal for "whistleblowing." The agency also operates a secure channel for federal whistleblower disclosures of violations of law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; abuse of authority; and substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. In addition, OSC issues advice on the Hatch Act and enforces its restrictions on partisan political activity by government employees. Finally, OSC protects the civilian employment and reemployment rights of military service members under USERRA. OSC has around 140 staff, and the Special Counsel is an ex officio member of Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an association of inspectors general charged with the regulation of good governance within the federal government.
The United States Air Force Honor Guard is the official ceremonial unit of the United States Air Force and is assigned to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington D.C.
Major Jill Metzger is a United States Air Force personnel officer who gained worldwide attention as the result of a three-day disappearance in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
The 436th Airlift Wing is an active unit of the United States Air Force, stationed at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. The wing operates Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, and is assigned to Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force.
On 29 August 2007, six AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles, each loaded with a W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead, were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H heavy bomber at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and transported to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The nuclear warheads in the missiles were supposed to have been removed before the missiles were taken from their storage bunker. The missiles with the nuclear warheads were not reported missing and remained mounted to the aircraft at both Minot and Barksdale for 36 hours. During this period, the warheads were not protected by the various mandatory security precautions for nuclear weapons.
Mortuary Affairs is a service within the United States Army Quartermaster Corps tasked with the recovery, identification, transportation, and preparation for burial of deceased American and American-allied military personnel. The human remains of enemy or non-friendly persons, are collected and returned to their respective governments or affiliations.
Charles C. Carson, Sr. was a civilian mortician for the United States Air Force and the namesake of the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs. The street on which the mortuary resides is also named in his honor.
The Department of Defense Whistleblower Program in the United States is a whistleblower protection program within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) whereby DoD personnel are trained on whistleblower rights. The Inspector General's commitment fulfills, in part, the federal mandate to protect whistleblowers. It also administers the Defense Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Program (DICWP), as a sub-mission for the intelligence community. The Inspector General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service also conducts criminal investigations which rely, in part, on Qui Tam relators.
Craig William Duehring was United States Assistant Secretary of the Air Force from 2007 to 2009.
Brian Lee Losey is a retired rear admiral of the United States Navy. He headed the Naval Special Warfare Command from 2013 until his retirement in 2016. Losey is a native of Tacoma, Washington.
The United States Department of the Air Force Police is the uniformed security police program of the Department of the Air Force (DAF). It provides professional, civilian, federal police officers to serve and protect U.S. Air Force (USAF) and Space Force (USSF) personnel, properties, and installations. DAF Police personnel represent the DAF's contribution to the Department of Defense Police program. DAF Police officers primarily work alongside USAF Security Forces, the military police of the USAF and USSF. Although a separate branch from the USAF, the USSF still falls-under the DAF, therefore law enforcement services are provided to the USSF by the DAF Police and USAF Security Forces. Although the Air Force Office of Special Investigations employs civilian special agents, it does not fall-under either the DAF Police or DoD Police umbrella.
In the United States Armed Forces, a dignified transfer is a procedure honoring the return of the remains of a servicemember from the theater of operations where they have died in the service of the United States. The transfer is conducted upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, from the arriving aircraft to a transfer vehicle, which then proceeds to the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs.
Deborah Roche Lee James served as the 23rd Secretary of the Air Force. She is the second woman, after Sheila Widnall, to ever hold this position.
The Inspector General of the Department of the Air Force is responsible for conducting investigations and inspections as directed by the Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and Chief of Space Operations. The position was originally established after World War II as The Air Inspector, which was carried over from the United States Army Air Forces. The current mission of the Inspector General is prescribed by Title 10 and Title 32 of the United States Code to develop United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Space Force (USSF) policy to assess readiness, discipline and efficiency with a vision to help shape senior leader decisions affecting the readiness of the USAF and USSF to strengthen the nation's defense.
The Fat Leonard scandal is an ongoing investigation and prosecution of corruption within the United States Navy during the 2000s and 2010s. It has involved ship support contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a Thai subsidiary of the Glenn Marine Group. The Washington Post called the scandal "perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War." The company's chief executive, president, and chairman, Malaysian national Leonard Glenn Francis, bribed a large number of uniformed officers of the United States Seventh Fleet with at least a half million dollars in cash, plus travel expenses, luxury items, parties and prostitutes, in return for classified material. The classified information included the movements of U.S. ships and submarines, confidential contracting information, and details about active law enforcement investigations into Glenn Defense Marine Asia.
Andrew P. Bakaj is a Washington, D.C. attorney and former intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was the principal attorney representing the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint that led to the launch of multiple investigations by the United States Congress into the Trump–Ukraine scandal, the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and, ultimately, the first impeachment of Donald Trump.