by Frank Bergman
U.S. Army personnel are practicing the excavation of temporary mass graves as the military prepares for high-intensity conflicts that could overwhelm its ability to rapidly evacuate fallen troops.
Soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, used bulldozers and excavators to rehearse burying large numbers of casualties while preserving remains for later identification and return home, Newsweek reported.
The Army said it has not conducted operations on this scale since the Korean War, which killed nearly 37,000 American service members between 1950 and 1953.
The training confronts a grim possibility: battlefield losses so heavy that the procedures used in Iraq and Afghanistan would no longer be sufficient.
Army Tests Capacity to Bury 2,400 Fallen Troops in One Day
The exercises involved the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command, the 20th Engineer Brigade, military chaplains, and religious support personnel.
Troops tested how heavy machinery could excavate and fill temporary burial sites without damaging remains needed for subsequent identification.
A standard temporary interment plot contains five trenches with space for 100 casualties.
During the drills, soldiers filled each plot in an average of one hour and 15 minutes.
According to the Army, eight bulldozers and four military excavators could temporarily inter up to 2,400 fallen soldiers in 24 hours.
Those figures describe the capacity tested during the exercise, rather than a forecast of expected American casualties.
“If We Went to War Tomorrow,” Procedures Would Be Improvised
Sergeant 1st Class Delbert Ruede said the exercise addressed a critical gap in preparing to care for fallen troops during large-scale combat.
“This exercise allowed us to take a critical look at how we respect, honor, and systematically manage our fallen in a high-intensity conflict,” Ruede said.
“If we went to war tomorrow, we would be making this up as we went along.
“What we are doing here is taking a scientific, field-tested approach so that we can maintain positive control and respectfully care for our fallen,” he added.