Personal Effects - US Soldiers in Iraq - Post 2001

I only know about boxing up personal effects after the 3 October engagement in Somalia, personally. I delivered the package to the S-3, who took it from there. I used a plain cardboard box, put everything inside except for helmet and flightsuit, and taped it shut. Not very helpful, huh?

Personal Effects

Hi,

Maybe I can help. I was a military photograher at the Joint Personal Effects Depot in Aberdeen, Maryland from 2004 t0 2008.

All personal effects from US citizens (military and civillian) wounded or killed in Iraq and Afgahanistan comes through the depot. Everything gets photographed. The effects that are on the body at time of death are removed and placed in a cloth bag and sent to the depot. These are referred eupahmistically (sp) as "transfers." These usually include wallets and their contents, jewelry like wedding rings, religious medals, muti-tools (a pocket knife, saw, screwdriver combo) and good luck charms. Somethimes these are covered in blood, leaving a distinct impression of how the person died. I had a wallet that contained a single bullet hole. (Wallets are often carried in the left vest pocket right over the heart.) Everything in that wallet, like folded bills and photograhs had a bullet hole and were blood stained. If something is damaged by fire in an explosion or bullets or blood, it is kept from the family, marked for destruction and held for six months before being destroyed. This is to give CID a chance to investigate the death if necessary or to allow the family to request these things be returned. They won't be sent back unless the family makes a specific request.

The main personal effects come into the depot usually 1 to 2 weeks after the transfers come through. Besides uniforms and other government issue stuff, you'll find lots of personal photographs of family. (These are the hardest, emotionally, to shoot.) If the person is young (and they usually are) there will be photos of prom, high school graduation and their friends and pets. I had a young single mother, age 25, killled. She left behind a five year old daughter. She had over 1200 photograhs of her little girl, not to mention what seemed like every school paper the little girl produced in kindergarten. We photograhed every single thing.

Again, if the person is young you'll find tons of video games, comic books and stuffed animals. That was another thing that took me by surprise -- the number of stuffed animals these "kids" bring to war. Magazines, books and movie DVDs. Soliders usually have a ton of stuff; Marines are limited to what they can fit in one footlocker.

Almost every soldier has a laptop; this truly is a digital war. As a photograher I viewed all the video files and deleated what would be considered inappropriate to send home--tons of porn, also in some cases, "kill shots" and video of some pretty disturbing things I wished I'd never seen.

USO gives military personnel free disposable cameras. If a camera came in with undeveloped film, we develop it and send the photos home provided there isn't anything inappropriate (again after photographing them for our records) .

Sometimes unexploded ordinances would come through, like hand grenades. After a couple of years of this the military installed one of those x-ray machines so we can pre-screen a footlocker before opening it. Every footlocker now gets x-rayed before being opeded.

Some families request that nothing be cleaned. They want the uniforms and cothes unwashed so they can smell their loved one. Typically we photograh everything as it comes in, documenting its condition before it gets washed. When the stuff gets packed up for home, everything is neat and clean and folded. One entire uniform is sent to the cleaners and dry-cleaned before being included in the effects that are sent home. The rest of the uniforms and GI issued stuff gets recycled and redistibuted. It used to be everything the solider had got sent home but as the war progressed and the budget tightened now all that stuff goes back to the branch service and re-issued. Items like used toothbruses, deoderant, opened containers of food and medications are generally marked for destruction.

I've also seen ultrasounds of dead servicemen's babies that are yet to be born; baby clothes that a soldier's infant wore home from the hospital, and recordings of a child talking to his/her parent. Every letter is read to make sure it doesn't contain anything that would bring distress to the person receiving the effects -- like if it's a letter from a girlfriend and the solider is married... or in some cases a suicide letter. :-( You'll also see memorial service pamphlets when a member of their unit has been killed. You could tell who saw the most action by the number of these phamplets included in the PE.

I've seen many sad things, but also funny things. By the time you sift through the personal belongings of someone you really get a sense of who they were; both good and bad. I've told my best friend if something were to happen to me, I want her to go through my things first. Not that I have things I want to hide, but I'm a messy, disorganized person and I have a sister-in-law who would jump at the chance to go through my things and report to one and all what a slob I am.

Hope this helps... let me know if you have any more questions. I swear, I've taken over 200,000 photographs. I doubt there's anything at this point I haven't seen.

EM

Wow, awesome stuff...never knew half of this went on.

By the by, this stuff is still handled by Graves and Registration, right?

suki said:

Wow. I can't thank you both enough for responding, and Elaine that info is exactly what I was looking for...

...When I get home tonight I will look through that scene and doublecheck what I have included - and if there are a few more specific questions about items I have included, would you mind if I posted them or sent a PM?

~suki

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Sure, feel free. I'm home now (in MD) so I have internet access and am on at least once a day. After Easter I'm back in a bad, lonely place (Iuka, Mississippi) with no convenient internet.

One thing I forgot to mention that might play well with your scene would be some seemingly inconsquential thing (like a skipping rock from home) could make a deep emotional impact on your family member when they recognise it. Many times there were things like rocks, or dirt in a container, or a goofy keepsake that you just knew had to hold deep sentimental meaning to the deceased. It's one of the reason I fought the command over having "memory boxes" included in the PE. These were small wooden chests that the SCOMOs (Summery Court Order Marshall Officer) would add to the PE right before it leaves the JPED. For one thing, not everyone got a memory box!? And how could *we*, people who did not know the solider, know what deserved inclusion in the memory box? If I were a soldier's mother who was unhappy with the military, I would not want military artifacts enshrined and set on top, so that's the first thing I see when I open the effects. Maybe a rock with sentimental value would hold more emotional worth; who's to say?

And there was that time when a SCOMO took a picture out of the guy's wallet and put it in his memory box and send it home to his widow. It was a picture of the ex-wife. Totally not cool. :-(

Another thing I'd see that might work for you were gifts soliders bought for their love ones. Christmas time was rough. All those christmas cards and gifts would be unwrapped and photograhed. We'd see souveniers; clothing and dolls from the region meant for children back home, also letters unsent. That too, could up the emotional impact for a scene. Soldiers also kept journals, but sometimes these were censored for various reasons.

As far as the branch of military the JPED (Joint Personal Effects Depot) fell under, it's CMOC (pronouced Cee-moc). I forget what it stands for (so many acronyms) but I think it's also called Casualty Affairs or Mortuary Affairs. The soldiers who worked with us were generally 92-Mikes, which means Mortuary Affairs Specialists. They all got a minimum of 6 mos. training prior to being assigned at the JPED. We civillians came in unprepared. My first day I shot 16 transfers, two of which were women.

Best of luck with your scene!

EM

Ah, so that's what they call GRREGS now!

>>>What would the Depot do if in with a soldier’s things was a sealed and addressed letter he didn’t get a chance to mail? Would they open it? Reseal and address it? leave it unopened? <<<

Any unopened mail written by the deceased is opened, read and photographed before being included in the PE. Letters sent to the deceased that are unopened are marked "Return to Sender", photographed unopened, and returned to sender.

>>>What would the Depot do if a soldier’s laptop was damaged – ie, couldn’t get it to turn on or got it on but crashing, etc., so that you couldn’t see any of the content or files, etc.
<<<

Rarely did this happen; we had some pretty good computer geeks at the JPED. If the harddrive was damaged or couldn't be read it would be removed from the laptop and the laptop returned without the harddrive. A letter from the commander would accompany the laptop with an explanation as to why the harddrive was removed.

>>>When processing a wallet, would you remove everything and place in a bag separate from the wallet? Or examine and then replace everything?<<<

We used to remove everything, and yes, all small items are placed in a plastic bag. The bag has a label on it that includes the "case" name (deceased's name) and JPED # (number assigned to each case when it comes into the JPED) along with a listing of the contents of the bag. Now wallets are photographed opened, showing the contents inside; then all the items are inventoried down to the smallest scrap of paper, photographed again and then placed back in the wallet. The reason we stopped sending the wallets back with the contents bagged seperately is becaused families would question if everything in the wallet was actually returned.

>>>When they pack everything into boxes or the footlocker for shipment, it’s my understanding some items are placed in plastic bags and others separated by like layers of tissue paper. Is that accurate?

The uniform placed on top, would it have all medals and insignia attached? Would it be wrapped in any way – ie, in tissue or plastic?<<<

Everything is shipped in new, black plastic footlockers which the family keeps. Loose items are bagged. This includes papers, photographs, CDs/DVDs, jewelry, games, etc.. Books and magazines are not bagged. Clothes are washed and folded. Uniforms are sent as the come back from the cleaners. I'm not sure what if any insigna would be on it. Maybe another military person can answer what is left on a uniform when cleaned. All the insignia patches, rank, etc. that I saw were bagged up. Footlockers are not supposed to exceed 50 pounds and yes they are generally shipped Fedex. Footlockers are sealed by the SCOMOs and it takes a court order to reopen them if being opened by anyone other than the PERE (Pronounced perry -- Person Responsible to Receive Personal Effects).

Yes, those letters your character finds from a girl friend would be included in the PE. The amount of civillian clothes really depends on the individual. Like I said, Marines had the least amount of stuff. Women soliders and high ranking officers have the most stuff. Three Ipods, while not unheard of, would make me suspisious that they were stolen (an unfortunately common occurance in the military). As far as the DVDs/CDs, again that's an individual thing, but most had cds and dvds that numbered in the range of 50-100 or more!

I never saw tissue paper included in the footlockers. They might put regular butcher type paper between the uniform and the rest of the stuff to keep it from wrinkling. I wasn't involved with the stuff going out, but rather when it came in.

Hope this helps! Ask again if there's anything I didn't cover, or if a new question comes up.

I served in Desert Shield/Storm. Not sure if that will help because it's a different time frame. Bear in mind that computers going to war is a new thing. We didn't have computers during Desert Storm (though we did have Game Boys).

Toilet Paper: Supply were very good at keeping this is stock, so no one hoarded their own personal one. We always found in the latrines.

How much civilian clothing – ie, jeans, tees, sweatshirts, socks, underwear, jackets, etc – would a soldier have in his stuff if he had been stationed in Iraq?

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Then, we didn't have a lot. When we left, we did not have a lot of room, and we were too heavy on the plane. I think I may have had a couple of shirts and pants, and that was it. Most of it was uniforms and PT uniforms. For the women, we were even more limited--we were in an area where there were nomads and could only where long-sleeves.

The uniform placed on top, would it have all medals and insignia attached? Would it be wrapped in any way – ie, in tissue or plastic?

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No medals. We were combat uniforms only. We never had any medals, and I think everyone pretty much went to patches where they could. Things like pin on rank were easy to lose.

Things I had: The briefing booklets we were given (small, paper books with things like words in Arabic), paperback novels (we had a mini-library of books), paper (I was trying to write while there), stories I'd written, lots of uniforms, some letters, Game Boy and a few games, assorted sundry items. Hairbrush, comb. Hairbrush was a hard item to get. I broke mine, and ended up using a piece of the remains because I could not get another one at all. Women would have also had barrettes for their hair.

Usually, people also kept some MRE packages, too. You might find hot sauce or coffee or cool-aid in a cache. Because of Desert Storm, the MREs were changed afterwards.

suki said:

EM,


My last questions (I think - though I will be revising that scene this weekend and I may have a few more after I dig into it) deal with the order the items would be placed in the footlockers and then how the footlockers would be sealed, so I will keep looking for those answers (and welcome them here if you or anyone else knows), but this was just so helpful.

Thank you!

~suki

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You know, I'm not sure how the footlockers were sent out! My guess would be a metal shipping tag threaded though the clasp/closing mechanism of the footlocker, thus requiring the seal be broken in order for the footlocker to be opened. We were supposed to recieve the footlockers that way, but it didn't always happen. When shipments came in, I would photograph every indiviudal footlocker showing whether or not it was sealed upon receipt.

You don't see many MREs in the PE. Since we are an occupying force in Iraq there are pretty good dining facilities there. Occasionally we would see MREs but they were usually in the PE from Afgahnistan.

The amount of PE we were reciving at the begining (2004) was way over the top in the amount of stuff. We could have 6, 7, even 12 footlockers full! We've had many BIG TVs come through, refrigerators (the kind you'd find in a dorm room), bikes, motorcycles and the frame for a moosehead that was going to be a taxidermy project. That one scared the Hell out of us when it was opened. This was before we had the x-ray machine. The full size moosehead came in a huge wooden crate. When they pried off the lid, all we initially saw was lots of twisted wire around a wooden frame. The JPED is a war operation and it was always possible an IED could find its way to us. We (me and the 3 Marine puppies helping me) jumped out of the way, not sure what it was or what was going to happen. It took a full five minutes for me to realize what it was. LOL

Now soliders are supposed to be restricted as to what they have, but as tours get extended and family/friends send them stuff, it really adds up. Plus I think they aquire things in theater from other soldiers who are shipping out. The most PE I ever had the chore to shoot came from a Major. This guy was a pack rat. He had pay stubs from 1988 and utility bills from ten years ago!! He also had a wife stateside so why he couldn't have left that stuff home I'll never know. It took a full two days for me to shoot his stuff!

As far as the order in which things are packed, there really isn't any. The pressed uniform would generally go on top (I assume) to keep it from wrinkling. They should try to divide heavy items among the footlockers to keep under than 50 pound weight limit. If the SCOMOs included a memory box (and again I have no idea why some rec'd them and some didn't) it would go on top. One time a SCOMO got a little fancy and taped all the military coins the solider collected to a piece of cardboard making a little military shrine out of it. The PERE (I think it was the solider's mother) was not happy about her son's decision to join the military and she was offended at the display. A complaint was made through the person's congressman, which made it all the way up the chain at CMOC. After that, SCOMOs were told not to do anything special in terms of packing. That was before the memory boxes. Sigh. One thing you learn working with the military is that the more things are supposed to change, the more they stay the same~

I'd be happy to look at your scene and comment if you think it would be helpful, although I'm sure with your careful research it will be fine!

EM

suki said:

Yup, the tag through the latches is what I thought it would be (from pictures and intuition) but I've been vague so as not to mess up such a key detail.

I'd actually really appreciate your take on the scene. I actually took the day off from work today, and I'll be working on it. I'm not sure whether it will be done by today or over the weekend, but I'd love to send it to you when it is (probably about 10 pages or so). PM or email?

And if email and you don't have that enabled in your preferences, just PM me the email you'd like me to use.

Thanks again.

~suki

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I'd be happy to look at it! I believe you can email me, as others have done so. If you have a problem, PM me and I'll send the email addy to you. An attachment of your pages is fine.

Best wishes,
EM