A previous life - and blog

[The_Traveler]

Before my photographic interests took over my blog, I also published (at Open.Salon.com and my own blog) about my previous life - or parts of it.

For several years before I left the Army, I worked with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's staff. The staff to the sites of large disasters and plane crashes and it was our responsibility, among other things, to identify the dead. It was interesting work, but gruesome and taxing.

I had not previously moved these articles to my own blog but at a friend's request, I posted them again.

They may be of interest to you as an insight into a part of life you may not be aware of.

These below are the first two paragraphs and a link to Part 1 in case you might be interested.

Have you ever seen a dead person?

Most people haven't, except perhaps at a traditional wake where the body, all primped and prepared, looks like it is alive but sleeping. No, not that kind of dead. Not even the kind of just-dead person that one might see in the few minutes before emergency vehicles come and whisk them to somewhere more private. That kind of dead look smaller, often like a heap of rags, as if something important had escaped from the body envelope. The religious think that the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Life or some other mysterious force has fled the body but we really know that the body is relaxed totally. That every tiny muscle fibril has given up any effort in anticipation of decay and so the body slumps down.

Even that kind of dead is not what I'm referring to.

I am asking if you've ever seen a dead person who has been torn apart by explosion or brute force, involuted, the head crushed, perhaps even the entire body burnt into the fighter's pose – distorted so far from what we think of as a person that your mind cannot easily accept what your eyes are seeing. That is the kind of dead person I mean.

Have you ever seen that kind of dead person?

Walking Among the Dead - Part 1

 

[wyogirl]

Very interesting Lew. My brother is a funeral director and while he has seen some gruesome things, I doubt even he has seen what you have. Before he got married, I know he looked into volunteering in a similar fashion, although I don't think he was able to make it work with his employment. Very interesting indeed.

 

[Tiller]

Thanks Lew. I am sorry the experiences were traumatic for you. I am grateful that I do not foresee myself ever having to deal with a similar situation.

 

[IByte]

Thanks Lew. I am sorry the experiences were traumatic for you. I am grateful that I do not foresee myself ever having to deal with a similar situation.

There is nothing worse than looking at a tin box w/personal effects that used to be your brother in arms.