Air Force to further discipline former supervisors in Dover mortuary controversy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/air-force-to-discipline-former-supervisors-in-dover-mortuary-scandal/2012/03/16/gIQAVxmLHS_story.html



Senior Airman Andrew Helmkamp/U.S. Air Force - Col. Robert Edmondson, left, the former Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center commander, will have harsher penalties imposed on him and another supervisor after a federal probe found they retaliated against (sic)



Air Force to further discipline former supervisors in Dover mortuary controversy
By Craig Whitlock, Published: March 16

The Air Force said Friday it will impose harsher penalties on the former commander and chief deputy of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary after a federal probe found they retaliated against subordinates for reporting systematic problems there, including cases in which body parts were lost.

The Air Force declined to specify what action it will take against Col. Robert Edmondson, the former commander, and his civilian deputy, Trevor Dean, saying only that it had begun disciplinary proceedings that will last into next month. Previously, Edmondson had been issued a letter of reprimand; Dean had been placed in a lesser, non-supervisory position.

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The firings came shortly after the two whistleblowers protested an order to saw off the fused arm bone of a dead Marine so he could fit in his dress uniform and casket. One of them, James G. Parsons Sr., an embalming technician, filed complaints about the incident, saying it amounted to mutilation.

“This has probably been the worst two years of my life,” Parsons said in an interview Friday. His firing was overturned after the Office of Special Counsel intervened on his behalf. He said that he was pleased the Air Force had decided to discipline his former bosses, but that he was “anxious to see” their final punishment and whether it sticks.