A sad epitaph indeed, if our honored dead and their remains have been treated this way. In the wake of our Veteran's Day celebrations, it is painful to think that anyone, but especially those serving in our military, would treat the honored dead in such a callous manner.

I sincerely hope that this egregious ignorance has been halted and that those demonstrating proper respect and have have been placed in charge of this sacred duty.

Remains dumped

The Air Force said the body parts were cremated, then incinerated, and taken to the landfill by a military contractor. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of the troops. In his letter to Panetta, Holt asked why the ashes were trucked to the landfill and not interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

He also asked whether the human remains had been mixed with incinerated medical waste, and he sought information on which military contractors were responsible. As of Friday, Holt said, he still had not received answers from Panetta’s office. “I thought there would be some straightforward explanation that we could get fairly quickly,” Holt said in a telephone interview.

“Evidently this has been harder for them to answer.” Holt said he was acting on behalf of Gari-Lynn Smith, a constituent whose husband, Army Sgt. 1st Class Scott R. Smith, was killed by a buried bomb in Iraq in 2006. In 2007, Gari-Lynn Smith received her husband’s autopsy report and learned that some remains had not been found in time to include in his casket.