DOVER, Del., May 26 (UPI) -- Information gathered from the bodies of men and women killed while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan is being used to protect other soldiers.
These wars are the first in which the bodies of casualties are routinely autopsied and given CT scans, The New York Times reports. The work is done at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware by pathologists working with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.
The autopsies have provided information on the functioning of protective equipment like body armor. Doctors working at Dover say they field many requests for information from the Defense Department and contractors.
Navy Capt. Craig Mallak, head of the military medical examiners, instituted the autopsy policy after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Scans have been done since 2004.
One important change was made at the recommendation of Col. Howard T. Harcke, a Marine Corps radiologist who put off his retirement to work at Dover. Harcke, reading scans, discovered that in many cases the tubing used to treat collapsed lungs was too short to reach the chest cavity.
"Soldiers are bigger and stronger now," he said.
