If you are familially related to a deceased soldier at war, can you request for their body back?

Question

Say, for example, you are the mom / dad / brother / sister / wife / husband of the person who perished fighting in a war, do you have the absolute right to request for the corpse back for burial?

And have there been instances where a military personnel have refused to open a closed casket because the body wasn't really there (due to it being unable to be retrieved in the battle)?

Can you demand to see the body and request for an open casket? Has it ever happened that an empty casket has gone home to family & friends of the loved one and be buried (empty)?

Sorry for the bluntness of my question but I was just wondering myself this. I have had ancestors who served in the military before, in my country.

I'm talking about GENERAL WARFARE, not whether the U.S. motive of going to war is a lie or not. ^-^

Answer 1

There is actually a process in place for handing over the remains of fallen servicemembers. In the U.S., before a servicemember deploys, they need a Record of Emergency Data in their file. This record gives instructions on what to do with the fallen member's money, personal effects, and the body. Beneficiaries and persons responsible are determined by the servicemember and documented in the record. It even asks who the member wants to be placed in charge of their funeral arrangements.

As far as open or closed casket, that all depends. If a member was shot in the chest and there are no disfigurements to the face, the family can choose to have an open casket at the funeral. However, if the person was involved in an explosion which disfigured or mutilated the body, a closed casket is standard. After all, if the body of your loved one is mutilated beyond recognition, you wouldn't really want to see it, now would you?

I've never known of an empty casket being buried in a fallen servicemember's grave. I've known of additional burials taking place once missing body parts have been found. It's a terrible thing, but the parts are buried in the grave, and the same ceremonial respects are paid. I feel that it's harder for families when the missing parts are found because they have to go through that same grief again. However, I feel that in doing that, it can also provide more closure.

As you can tell, I've dealt with this process before, and this is not something to be taken lightly. It's very rough, especially when you're the one who has to load the person's flag-draped casket onto the plane in the middle of a war zone and send them home for good. I hope I have answered your question well. Thanks.

Answer 2

Normally a closed casket is such because the remains are in a very bad way, either threw the initial cause of death, explosion, fire, traumatic amputation, loss of limbs etc..

it also depends on whether the remains were recovered very quickly and the nearest Graves Registration Unit with refrigeration and mortuary facilities.

Personally I would prefer to remember the way the person was when he / she was alive, than look into the casket.

I also believe if its not possible to recover the entire corpse, the weight difference can be added to the coffin.

Not to sure you can demand to much, with regards seeing the body sometimes there just isn't enough there to view, or what ever is gathered is not humanly recognisable as your family member.

Answer 3

OK, my uncle died and was buried in France in 1944, I think. My father says that my grandmother wasn't the same until the casket was home. I've seen the telegrams that my grandfather had written requesting the body be sent back home. My father says that 6 months after the telegrams were sent, the casket was home. My father has said that there could have been rocks in that casket for all my grandmother knew, but she believed that my uncle was in there and she was able to recover more easily believing that her son was home. No ever asked to have the casket opened. I'm sure they didn't want to see the pieces of their son, decayed inside, if he was actually in their.

I don't know for sure, but I would suspect that some caskets have gone home with rocks in them. Actually, the belief that a loved one is in the casket and is home is more important than that loved one being in there. The loved one is already in heaven and the belief that that loved one's body is in the casket helps those who are left to move on.

Answer 4

Disposition of the mortal remains of someone who has died on active duty lies with the primary next-of-kin by law. In some cases the mortal remains are shielded from view by affixing a metal plate across the top of an open coffin with the use of heavy metal bolts. That's done because the remains are not properly viewable due to degradation or other reasons where the condition of the remains would be considered repulsive in normal social contact. The funeral director at the locale of final disposition of the mortal remains can open that plate for viewing by the next of kin to determine whether or not to proceed with a closed casket funeral ceremony. That decision lies with the primary next of kin and no one else. Most of the next of kin, after viewing the mortal remains in these situation, concur with the earlier decision of the military personnel who ordered the sealing in the first place.
There are a number of cemeteries on foreign shore which contain the mortal remains of U.S. military personnel. The wars which produced those casualties were of such intensity and distance that it was a necessary and expedient measure to use foreign soil as the final resting place.
I had 12 years of experience in decedent affairs in the Navy. I cannot recall any case where a casket was sealed from viewing because no mortal remains lay within. I handled a few cases where there were only partial remains recovered in a prior missing in action case and those partial remains were recovered in sufficient amount to change the missing person's status to confirmed dead.
Of course, all of the above applies only to U.S. military dead. The U.S. prides itself on trying to recover, identify and make honorable dispostion of the mortal remains of all of its military dead.

Answer 5

Prior to deployment a us soldier will specify whom gets their body in the event of dieing. If a body can't be retrieved for some reason, I highly doubt the us gov. would send back an empty casket and lie about a body actually being in it.

Answer 6

Say, for example, you are the mom / dad / brother / sister / wife / husband of the person who perished fighting in a war OVER A LIE?