I Was Deployed to Katrina

I am a soldier in the US Army, and no that isn't supposed to be a boast or a declaration for attention. I am stationed out of Ft. Lee, VA and my MOS is 92M (Mortuary Affairs for those unsure about military jargon). My tour in Louisiana was brief - a bit longer than two weeks - but my time there was enough to enlighten me a bit to a larger picture about not only domestic ignorance but some of the many faults of the service that I am serving under.

I was living aboard the U.S.S. Sensation, a fairly nice cruise liner that had been opened up to my company (and some other civilians and military) as a place to stay out of during the evening but conduct our search and recovery missions during the day. Now, being the paranoid SOB that I am I won't go into much detail as too what I saw dead person-wise (though it was substantial) but my main beef was with the people we were working with. The leeches of America, a.k.a. Kenyon, vied with us the entire time for places to search (I aliked it to a gang territory war) because with each body they discovered they got paid. Now granted, my information on them isn't anything resembling extensive, so if someone can enlighten me as to the grander, nobler mission of Kenyon please do so.

This isn't so much a theory topic as it is a rant, and I've been holding it in for about seven months now and I figured this forum would be a good release. Though I'm still worried I've said too much and some government official who monitors this board is going to have my IP address traced...

not sure about kenyon but I would like to say thank you for the job you do and thank you for assisting in the awful task of cleaning out the dead. I went to school in New Orleans and the suffering that city endured (and the other regions too of course) was horrific and the work done by the people that went there has not received nearly enough accolades in my eyes

Thanks for posting and bringing this to our attention. I don't know who Kenyon is or what they do - could you say a few words to explain who they are?
I'm sure you saw some pretty dreadful things, thank you for doing the work that you did, I'm sure that was a pretty thankless job.

First, Thank you Speakeasy for doing your part to assist any and all affected by Hurricane Katrina!

Now, as for Kenyon ...

Kenyon International Emergency Services
When Disaster Strikes
Can you recover your reputation?

Kenyon International Emergency Services teams have responded to the world’s largest disasters including World Trade Center 2001, Tsunami 2004, Katrina 2005 and hundreds of air crashes since 1929. We are the world’s most experienced and comprehensive disaster Management Company, ready to help organizations respond to crises anywhere, anytime. We coordinate emergency services connected with accidents, terrorist attacks and natural phenomenon:

Kenyon is a government-funded group of contractors who are basically on nation-wide disasterwatch; whenever something goes wrong they are dispatched to help with the clean-up. Now, as previously said I'm not entirely sure if my information is right, these are all just things I've heard from some other people who are as equally perturbed about the situation in Lousiana as I.

EDIT: 12m8keall2c did a better job of explaining it, I think.

[edit on 18-4-2006 by Speakeasy]

Found an article for Kenyon

Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.

link

Service Corporation International or SCI is a corporation based in Houston, Texas which runs one of the largest chains of funeral homes in the world with over 3800 funeral homes, 40000 employees, and revenues of $2.4 billion dollars. It operates in 18 countries in five continents and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

In contrast to many other large corporations, SCI tries to keep an extremely low profile. Typically, a funeral home that is owned by SCI will not have any trace of the corporation, and the corporation does not actively publicize its existence. In many cases, SCI will buy a pre-existing funeral home with a long history and keep the name, the family history, and be otherwise invisible.

en.wikipedia.org...



[edit on 18-4-2006 by valkeryie]

Originally posted by valkeryie
Found an article for Kenyon

Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.

link

I can attest to some of that. I've seen Kenyon contractors purposely ignore buildings that were confirmed to contain a fair number of dead because there was another location that had even more dead. Dead=Profit, and they'll go out of their way to exploit it.

Worse still is when my company arrived at a building before Kenyon they would some times dispute claim over that site with my chain of command, saying we should go to one of the lesser sites because the workload here was "more than we can handle". Dude, I'm a freakin' mortician. People all look the same on the inside, and the number of dead people isn't a determening factor in how I handle it.

Speakeasy, thanks for coming forward with this it really adds more details to the bigger picture. It also highlights how capitalism just worships one master Profit *shakes head* anyway... you said

Originally posted by SpeakeasyNow, being the paranoid SOB that I am I won't go into much detail as too what I saw dead person-wise (though it was substantial)

Could you expound on that a bit? Not sure what you mean, did the dead bodies give you cause for concern?

Edit, shpelling

[edit on 18/4/06 by Dae]

Well, I won't lie and say it wasn't unnerving. I work with the dead every day but seeing what I did on such a grander scale unnerved me a bit. Don't misunderstand me, though: It wasn't the condition of the bodies that startled me, but the sheer number of them.

In addition, I didn't want to go into much detail because it goes against many ethical and military codes for me to do so (for instance I cannot give you names of the deceased and the exact appearance of their corpse). Let's just say by the time we arrived the sun and water had done their duty.

Originally posted by Speakeasy
Well, I won't lie and say it wasn't unnerving. I work with the dead every day but seeing what I did on such a grander scale unnerved me a bit. Don't misunderstand me, though: It wasn't the condition of the bodies that startled me, but the sheer number of them.

Thats what I thought you meant but wasnt sure, kinda the case of the dead outnumbering the living, would be a weird one indeed...

Well it wasn't like Resident Evil but you're right Dae, it was a bit unnerving. One particular hospital my team went through felt like a zombie movie waiting to happen.

"because with each body they discovered they got paid."

I just couldnt get my head round that, is that a normal code of practice??

It doesn't make much sense to me neither, but I honestly believed they got a flat-rate pay based on how many bodies they recovered in a day. How's that for a immoral job practice?

i was there with iraq vets against the war for the march from mobile to new orleans. the devastion down there was horriable it reminded me alot about iraq and how we mde the people lives there like. imagine what u seen there 100 times worse daily for the people in iraq. most of the funding that could have helped those people went to fund the war and left those people stranded

I seem to be a broken record that no one is listening to...

It's the state's responsibility to clean up such a disaster, not the federal government's. Blame the state more than anything.

When I read SCI, I had to look and see if my memory was correct, once when looking at Bush's background as governor, I found out about a scandal called Funeralgate that involved out current president and SCI. If you have not heard of it, believe me it makes for interesting reading and is often times shocking.

on a side note, I have some family in Buloxi and they said bodies were everywheres. Honestly I do not believe the numbers we are getting from the media is correct. But that's just my opinion from talking to them.

www.hereinreality.com...

See Fox News: Gruesome Photos, Video Show Bodies Discarded in Woods Behind Cemetery
www.foxnews.com...
Here's a new chapter in an old scandal involving a Bush contributor and longtime family friend, Robert Waltrip. This time it's the desecration of dead bodies, and George W. Bush is directly linked to this scandal (as is former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, GW's Chief of Staff while governor of Texas). According to Fox News, Waltrip's company, a cemetery company called Service Corporation International (also known as Dignity Memorial) was "recycling" graves, removing the bodies that were there originally and throwing them in the woods to use the space to house new customers at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida.

Bush's connection to the story is that he was subpoenaed in 1999 but refused to testify in a lawsuit by an ousted Texas state employee as to what his involvement was in halting an investigation into SCI's embalming practices, among other things.
This was a big Texas scandal for our president at the time, but as you will learn from this Washington Post article dated August 31, 1999, a Texas judge put everything right for then-governor Bush, just in time to campaign for the Presidency.

I really can't imagine getting paid to exploit the dead... theres somthing seriously wrong with that...

dude do yourself a friggen favor and dont mention so many of your personal details because that was my mistake #1. it is all monitored and u cannot say
certain things and if you are smart you will shutup now. i've been through this
since 2004, u dont wanna be followed, threatened, spyed on, etc. like i have
been i promise you.

keep your mouth shut and stay out of posting anything regarding mil/gov

i wrote the thread here "environmental devistation coverup" under xgovgirl and ill tell you it has NOT been a fun friggen ride AT ALL.

i just logged back on its been a while, dont go running your mouth it will get u no where but trouble.

i dug myself a hole just big enough to sleep in. watch your back & i would say this website is 100% monitored if not many members being people looking to snoop on anyone opening their mouth too loud.

dont buy this place anymore, wanted to once but after what ive been through i dont think its a smart idea to talk here or anywhere else unless you want a little fan club after you.

Interesting....I looked into it and I can't believe the amount of censoring on a supposed "conspiracy forum."