WASHINGTON \u2014 The US Army has reportedly trained soldiers to dig mass\ngraves for troops killed in war, preparing for the possibility of large\nnumbers of fatalities should conflict break out again in future. The\nexercise was the first of its kind since the Korean War of 1950\u201353,\nNewsweek reported.<\/p>\n
The report of the mass-grave training came as tensions between the US\nand Iran escalated again, while the war\u2019s death toll remained disputed.\nLast month, The Washington Post reported that at least 22 US military\npersonnel had been killed, four more than the figure released by the\nPentagon.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post said some of the deaths were not directly caused\nby the Iran war, but involved US personnel stationed in the Middle East.\nUS Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth denied the newspaper\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
Newsweek reported on Thursday (29 October 2026) that the exercise,\nnamed Operation Dragon Covenant Phase II, began last month and was held\nat Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It involved troops from the 3rd\nExpeditionary Sustainment Command and the 20th Engineer Brigade, along\nwith religious support personnel.<\/p>\n
Using bulldozers, excavators and other heavy equipment, they\npractised establishing temporary burial grounds and handling the remains\nof soldiers killed in a large-scale war. In a statement, the US Army\nsaid it had not conducted mass-grave excavation training since the\nKorean War, in which 36,515 US personnel were killed or went missing and\nanother 7,245 were captured.<\/p>\n
During nearly 25 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the remains of\nUS personnel killed in action were sent home promptly, without the need\nfor extensive burial operations. The current exercise is intended to\nprepare the military for a situation in which casualties are so numerous\nthat fellow soldiers cannot bury each person separately or hold\nindividual religious burial rites.<\/p>\n
Under US Army standards, a temporary cemetery complex consists of\nfive trenches, with sufficient capacity to bury 100 bodies at once.\nDuring the exercise in North Carolina, soldiers used heavy equipment to\nprepare each burial plot within a target time of one hour and 15\nminutes.<\/p>\n
According to the US Army, eight bulldozers and four excavators could\nhelp bury 2,400 soldiers in 24 hours. The training also focused on\npreserving the integrity of remains so that they could be identified and\neventually returned to the United States.<\/p>\n
First Sergeant Delbert Ruede of the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment\nCommand told Newsweek that the exercise helped the military assess how\nto bury and honour soldiers killed in war. He said it was intended to\nreplace an improvised response to wartime events with a systematic,\nfield-tested approach to caring for the dead.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/us-troops-trained-to-dig-mass-graves-amid-plans-for-a-new-attack-on-iran-1793364743", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }