Defense News: The US Army Practices Digging Temporary Graves The US Army has begun preparing for a grim scenario: burying dead soldiers directly on the battlefield. In Operation Dragon Covenant in North Carolina, engineers, medics, chaplains and casualty specialists practiced a mass temporary burial - the first time on such a scale since the Korean War. "The army is preparing for the grim prospect of burying soldiers who have fallen on the battlefield, and is testing how quickly it can create temporary graves with remains preserved for eventual identification and return to families after the end of the conflict," writes Defense News. The publication notes: During the twenty years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American air superiority enabled the rapid evacuation of bodies to the United States. In future conflicts involving large-scale combat, such capabilities will not exist. During the exercise, operators with D6 bulldozers dug a trench for 20 remains within an hour and a quarter on average - with the new method, a company of engineers will be able to prepare graves for 2,400 bodies within 24 hours. "If we were to go to war tomorrow, we would improvise on the fly. What we do here is a scientific, field-tested approach to maintaining control and treating our dead with dignity," the publication quotes Sergeant Delbert Royd. According to the publication, the exercise also revealed problems: the army's instructions did not match the current technology - the seven feet set between rows turned out to be too narrow for a bulldozer. The priests prepared the protocols separately: in an intense battle, the teams would not be able to stop their work for individual religious ceremonies, so they decided to sanctify the place in advance. "In a high-intensity combat environment, casualty management teams cannot stop a 24-hour burial operation for individual religious ceremonies," Defense News quoted Lt. Col. Roskey as saying. The third phase of the exercise is planned for spring 2027.

Defense News: The US Army Practices Digging Temporary Graves The US Army has begun preparing for a grim scenario: burying dead soldiers directly on the battlefield. In Operation Dragon Covenant in North Carolina, engineers, medics, chaplains and casualty specialists practiced a mass temporary burial - the first time on such a scale since the Korean War. "The army is preparing for the grim prospect of burying soldiers who have fallen on the battlefield, and is testing how quickly it can create temporary graves with remains preserved for eventual identification and return to families after the end of the conflict," writes Defense News. The publication notes: During the twenty years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American air superiority enabled the rapid evacuation of bodies to the United States. In future conflicts involving large-scale combat, such capabilities will not exist. During the exercise, operators with D6 bulldozers dug a trench for 20 remains within an hour and a quarter on average - with the new method, a company of engineers will be able to prepare graves for 2,400 bodies within 24 hours. "If we were to go to war tomorrow, we would improvise on the fly. What we do here is a scientific, field-tested approach to maintaining control and treating our dead with dignity," the publication quotes Sergeant Delbert Royd. According to the publication, the exercise also revealed problems: the army's instructions did not match the current technology - the seven feet set between rows turned out to be too narrow for a bulldozer. The priests prepared the protocols separately: in an intense battle, the teams would not be able to stop their work for individual religious ceremonies, so they decided to sanctify the place in advance. "In a high-intensity combat environment, casualty management teams cannot stop a 24-hour burial operation for individual religious ceremonies," Defense News quoted Lt. Col. Roskey as saying. The third phase of the exercise is planned for spring 2027.