Supervisor of scandal-hit US mortuary resigns: military

 

                                 A soldier attends a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base (AFP/Getty Images, Win Mcnamee)

 

 

WASHINGTON — The supervisor of the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where remains of US soldiers were lost or sent to a landfill, has resigned, the US Air Force said Friday.

 

Quinton Keel oversaw the troubled morgue amid an embarrassing scandal in which military investigators accused him and two others of "gross mismanagement" last year. He was disciplined as a result of the probe but was not fired.

 

But on Friday, Air Force spokesman Chris Isleib told AFP that "Mr. Keel has left the federal service."

 

The Washington Post reported that Keel, who faced allegations of lying to investigators, mutilating a corpse and retaliating against whistleblowers, left the facility Monday after he tendered his resignation.

 

The bodies of more than 6,300 US military personnel, most of whom died serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, have passed through the morgue since 2003, in repatriation ceremonies before the remains were returned to the families.

 

In November, the internal Air Force investigation revealed malpractice in 2008, when elements of unidentified human remains were cremated before being dispersed in a landfill.

 

After allegations from whistleblowers at the Dover Air Force base mortuary, an Air Force investigation found two portions of the remains of fallen troops were lost and other problems at the morgue.

 

Keel at the time was reassigned to another position within the military.

 

Air Force chief of staff General Norton Schwartz said in November that while the three supervisors had failed to meet the high standards required, the mistakes were not "a deliberate act."

 

Keel was also the subject of an administrative investigation for suspected retaliation against three civilian employees of the mortuary who had reported the misconduct.

 

One of the whistleblowers, whose status is protected by US law, was dismissed, but then was reinstated.

 

Keel's departure came the same week that the US Defense Department revealed for the first time that some portions of remains recovered from the September 11 attacks in 2001 were incinerated and eventually dumped in a landfill.

 

That revelation came from the same Pentagon review of the Dover Air Base scandal.

 

(AFP) – 1 day ago 

 

 

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