Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations

AFMAO is a Field Operating Agency under the Deputy Chief of Staff, Manpower, Personnel and Services, Headquarters Air Force.

It is AFMAO's mission and privilege to fulfill the nation's sacred commitment of ensuring dignity, honor and respect to the fallen, and care, service and support to their families.

The mortuary staff prepares the remains of U.S. service members, as well as government officials and their families stationed abroad in Europe and Southwest Asia.

[3] In recognition of dedicated and committed services for over two decades, Dover Air Force Base named its mortuary after Charles C. Carson.

In June 2019, Operating Location Pacific was established at Hickam Field, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oahu, Hawaii.

[citation needed] In 2011, a federal investigation by the United States Office of Special Counsel found the center had committed "gross mismanagement" of remains,[5] including losing body parts, sawing off the damaged arm bone of a soldier – without telling his family – so he would fit in a casket, and lax supervision.

[13] A subsequent The Washington Post investigation revealed in December 2011 that the center had disposed of the partial cremated remains of 274 US military personnel in the King George County Landfill in Virginia.

[19] In June 2012, three of the civilian whistleblowers who had suffered retaliation, James G. Parsons Sr., Mary Ellen Spera, and William Zwicharowski, were honored as "public servants of the year" by the United States Office of Special Counsel.