So, I’m rewatching Band of Brothers, and I’m wondering if someone knows: what happens to the bodies of soldiers when the survivors are running for their lives from enemy attack?
And they would be returned to the other side if requested later.
11
cfgman1Apr 11, 2026
+10
That's the main difference between KIA and MIA
10
Shiverproof22Apr 11, 2026
+4
Usually they’re left in the chaos, then once the area’s secure, Graves Registration units come through to recover and ID them. Band of Brothers mostly skips that less-cinematic part.
4
EuphoricReplacement1Apr 11, 2026
+1
The DPAA lab in Pearl harbor does forensic identification of soldiers' remains. Eighty percent of them involve DNA analysis.
1
browncoatsneededApr 11, 2026
+4
Specific to the D Day invasion: https://www.abmc.gov/video/normandy-american-cemetery/?utm_campaign=Website
4
himtnboyApr 11, 2026
+3
Mortuary services is by far the worst job in the military.
3
malsomnusApr 11, 2026
+2
Some might say that being the recipient of that service is, in fact, worse.
2
GoblinRightsNowApr 12, 2026
+3
What's the MOS code for a corpse?
3
OrangeBird077Apr 11, 2026
+1
In the European Theater it was customary for the winning side to repatriate their own soldiers for temporary burial until they could be reintured back home. Meanwhile the fallen enemy soldiers were usually buried in mass graves which were documented so that when hostilities ended the other side could be notified where they could recover their dead.
To leave dead bodies on the field regardless of which army they were in is a huge battlefield no no because rotting bodies become Petri dishes for disease. The war in Ukraine is the latest example of that as Russian forces habitually abandon their dead in no man’s land.
10 Comments