Almost four thousand US troops have died in Iraq since 2003, and IED explosions are the number one cause of death.
As a result, the bodies of nearly half of those service-members have not come home fully intact.
The military is using DNA technology and other tools to identify the remains of the soldiers and return them to their families.
But sometimes that process can take months, causing even more grief for some military families.
NHPR Correspondent Shannon Mullen reports.
This story was named 2007 Best Feature by the New Hampshire Associated Press Broadcasters Association.
MULLEN: It’s been a year and a half since Army Captain Doug DiCenzo was killed in Iraq. His wife Nicole now lives in his hometown - Plymouth, New Hampshire – where she’s raising their 2 year old son Dakin. This morning they're making a loaf of bread together.
DICENZO: (rattling) Ok here we go. We need 3 tablespoons of honey, this is messy.
Dakin: This is Messy.
DiCenzo: this is messy [laughs]
(fade noise under)
MULLEN: Dakin keeps his mom busy, and she says her strong Christian faith keeps her positive. But her grief is still raw from losing her husband. She's haunted by the way he died, in an IED explosion that was so powerful it blew off his body armor.
DICENZO: You know you’re driving down the road and you think about it and you just start, of what really happened, and you just break down. I mean you just break down. It’s hard for your mind to grasp the horror of it.
MULLEN: DiCenzo wanted to have her husband's ashes for his funeral, but she had to sign a form first, saying she understood his remains were incomplete, and specify that she wanted to receive any remains identified in the future. The Army called a month later, and brought a second urn. And 7 months after his death, she got a third one.
DICENZO: After one you start questioning, what’s in each one. And that is what tears you up more than anything, is wondering what do I have of my husband here, and what do I have of my husband here.
MULLEN: Since the start of combat operations in Iraq in March of 2003, the bodies of 1-thousand-928 service-members killed in action were not intact when they were recovered. That can mean there’s anything from a piece of missing bone, to what the military calls severe fragmentation of the body.
Navy Captain Craig Mallak is the Armed Forces Medical Examiner. He's tasked with identifying these remains, using fingerprint and dental records, and ever-improving DNA technology.
MALLAK: there's a number of cases where if we didn’t have DNA we wouldn’t be able to make an identification at all. So it’s a powerful new tool that we think is great advantage for us to fully account for those who make the ultimate sacrifice for this country.
MULLEN: A full account that for some, can take months. Mallak doesn’t know what caused the delays in Doug DiCenzo’s case, but he says the main reason for delays in general, is DNA that's damaged by things like fire or water.
MALLAK: it can be challenging in our laboratory, which is one of the best in the world, if not THE best.
MULLEN: Many families ask not to be told if more of their loved one's remains are identified. But more than 200 families who wanted to know have received one additional portion of remains. Doug DiCenzo's family is one of 34 who got more remains - twice. And for 4 families, the military came back 3 times.
Whenever possible, the Army sends the same Casualty Assistance Officer - or CAO - initially assigned to a family.
TETREAULT: it’s almost starting the process over again, you opening the wound again…
MULLEN: Lieutenant Colonel Robert Tetreault is Nicole DiCenzo's CAO.
TETREAULT: You got that god awful feeling in the pit of your stomach where you think, oh man this is, this is tough. I’ve gotta go have this conversation with the family again. Because you DO get connected you start to feel their pain, you feel their sorrow. It makes it harder sometimes, no question.
MULLEN: The Army’s Casualty and Memorial Affairs Branch sets policy on how families are notified of soldiers’ deaths. Its Deputy Chief Kevin Logan says each time the Army returns remains, families have to sign another form that asks:
LOGAN: do you want us to come back out. So they’ve got an option, do you want to continue receiving them? Or do they want to stop this is the last one, I can’t take it anymore. And some families will continue to sign I want it all, it has to do with the closure issue.
MULLEN: For those who choose yes, that choice can be hard to live with. For Nicole DiCenzo it's meant walking by three urns every day.
DICENZO: You relive it over and over again. Even on the third, I've signed a form saying I still want to know. It’s been over a year and I still don’t know if that chapter is closed yet.
MULLEN: This month, she says, she found her own kind of closure, and put all of her husband's remains into one urn.
For NHPR News, I’m Shannon Mullen
My Uncle Tony whom was KIA in Viet-Nam came home after dying in a firefight (smallarms) that was tough for me as a kid and after serving in uniform those whom gave more than life for the nation whom gave up home and whom they are become the list of MIA/POW.
What I find sadest is when going to events (like those of Rolling Thunder for MIA/POW)how little the public shows support to remember them it is the veterans and familys whom show,remember,pause to honor the loss.
I do thank NHNPR for this story as it shows the impact beyond the loss of life to the familys of those whom gave all.
To this dear woman and all whom grief has taken much more, We Remember!
PastNikeVet
UNDIQUE VENIMUS