Book Description
The title of ATP 4-46 has been changed to Contingency Fatality Operations to appropriately reflect the actual intended focus and content of the manual. ATP 4-46, Contingency Fatality Operations, serves as a planning and operations guide for all personnel involved in mortuary affairs (MA) within a theater of operations (TO). These personnel must ensure the MA mission is completed with available personnel and equipment. They must also know the types of problems they may face in performing the MA mission. MA, as defined in joint publication (JP) 4-06, provides for the search, recovery, identification, preparation, and disposition of human remains of persons for whom the Services are responsible by status and Executive Order. The Department of Defense (DOD) Executive Steering Committee (ESC) determined that Mortuary Affairs required delineation to identify the Contingency Fatality Operations. Contingency Fatality Operations provides for the search and recovery, contamination mitigation, tentative identification, preparation and temporary disposition of human remains of persons covered under JP 4-06 during contingency operations. (This includes PE). The mortuary operations process is the point from which human remains are released by the Medical Examiner to the point where remains are evacuated to a receiving funeral home designated by the Person Authorized to Direct Disposition (PADD). A mortuary is a stand-alone facility where remains are prepared and casketed, and where viewing may be afforded. There are four DOD mortuaries: Landstuhl, Germany; Dover, Delaware (does not have the capability to facilitate viewings); Kadena, Japan; and Yongsan, South Korea. ATP 4-46 has several changes from FM 4-20.64, Mortuary Affairs Operations. One of the significant changes is the quartermaster (QM) mortuary affairs (MA) company mission is to provide the full range of mortuary affairs (MA) operations during contingency operations. It can perform any one of the following tasks: MA collection point (MACP) operations, mortuary affairs contaminated remains mitigation site (MACRMS) operations, theater mortuary evacuation point (TMEP), or personal effects (PE) depot. The company performs these tasks by assigning platoons to the specific task or mission; however, the company's platoons do not perform these tasks concurrently. The new unit is a combination of the quartermaster mortuary affairs company (echelons above corps) and the quartermaster collection company (MA). The combination allows all MA units to provide the same support to all areas of operations.