The Liberty Daily 
(The Daily Caller)—The Army has begun training to quickly dig temporary graves while preserving remains for identification and return to families in the case of a future large scale conflict.
Army engineers, preventive medicine teams, chaplains and fatality management specialists trained for mass temporary burials in preparation for potential future conflict during an Oct. 21 training in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Army Times reported Monday.
“The exercise served as a critical test of concept to validate the feasibility of battlefield temporary interment, an operational reality the U.S. Army has not executed at scale since the Korean War,” read an Oct. 22 release from the U.S. Army. “By bringing together fatality management specialists, horizontal construction engineers, preventive medicine teams, and chaplains, the exercise sought to determine if modern earthmoving equipment can meet the demanding timeline requirements of a mass-casualty environment.”
The Department of War did not immediately respond for comment.
These exercises were not common over the past twenty years of the War on Terror, as American air superiority allowed the quick transportation of remains back to the U.S. A future conflict with a large-scale combat operation may not have these same capabilities, according to Army Times.
“This exercise allowed us to take a critical look at how we respect, honor, and systematically manage our fallen in a high-intensity conflict,” said Sgt. 1st Class Delbert Ruede, the senior fatality management non-commissioned officer for the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command said via the release. “If we went to war tomorrow, we would be making this up as we went along. What we are doing here is taking a scientific, field-tested approach so that we can maintain positive control and respectfully care for our fallen.”
The U.S. requires the evacuation of human remains during conflict if operations permit, but mortuary affairs guidance allows for temporary graves when the deceased cannot be safely moved due to safety, lack of transportation, or if the deaths are a result of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, per Army Times.
