Thursday, July 07, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Pentagon changes policy after dispute over burial of LV Marine

WASHINGTON -- Prompted in part by the painful experience of a Las Vegas mother whose son was killed in Iraq, the Pentagon said Wednesday it will change a policy on burial rights for military personnel.

Service members will be required to clearly designate a person responsible to dispose of their remains should they be killed, according to John Molino, deputy undersecretary of defense for community and family policy.

Molino said the change was spurred by two cases of fallen service members whose funeral arrangements were complicated by disputes among family members.

One of the service members was Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Anderson, a 2003 graduate of Bonanza High School who was killed Nov. 12 in a Humvee accident 20 miles south of Baghdad.

Anderson, 19, had lived in Las Vegas with his mother, Eleanor Andrea Dachtler. After his death, Dachtler and Anderson's father, her ex-husband, disagreed on burial arrangements.

A Navy judge advocate general officer concluded the father, Albert Anderson, of Ventura, Calif., had rights to the serviceman's remains based on a power of attorney that Dachtler continues to challenge and because he was the oldest nearest relative based on Defense Department policy.

Molino said the Defense Department will modify its Record of Emergency Data Form, adding a line to require all service members to name a person responsible for their burial.

Currently there is only an optional listing for such information in a "general remarks" section of the form.

"This is very bittersweet solace," Dachtler said Wednesday. "It's unfortunate at this point that other families have already gone through this. There is nothing that is so terrible as to lose somebody you love, and to add to the grief of the situation."

Molino disclosed the change in a letter to Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Berkley had pressed the Pentagon for change and had proposed burial rights legislation after helping Dachtler navigate the military system in claiming her son's remains.

"This simple change will prevent heartache for military families and will give our servicemen and women the final say in who determines their funeral arrangements," Berkley said in a statement.

Berkley's bill, co-sponsored with Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., calls on the Pentagon to ensure that all service members have named a person responsible for their burial, and to have that designation reviewed at time of deployment.

"We're going to be in contact with the Department of Defense to make them aware of the necessity of doing this not only for those (service members) coming in, but for those already deployed," Berkley spokesman David Cherry said. "The other course we will seek is to publicize this."

Farr became involved after the February death of Jason Hendrix, an Army staff sergeant raised near Watsonville, Calif. Hendrix's body was directed to his mother in California, then redirected to his father in Oklahoma.

According to Farr, the soldier's body was put in cold storage for a month before being buried in Oklahoma.