Mortuary officer at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan. Mortuary was used primarily for local nationals, who were allowed treatment at the base hospital for a life/limb/eyesight injury, and had subsequently died of their injuries. We had no idea who most of these people were so getting them back to their families for burial was near impossible. Many of these bodies often lingered in our mortuary in refrigerated containers for months. Only problem was that power was not always reliable so the bodies would become badly decomposed over time from the multiple power failures.

At one point we had 8 bodies that had been in the morgue for at least 4 months, very badly decomposed to the point where the contents of the body bags sloshed around when handled. It was like milk that had been spoiled to the point where half the liquid had now curdled. I needed to have them removed and we did not have a burial site at the base.

Out of options, we approached one of the warlords that we contracted with for trucking to see if he could help us. That same evening he sent one of his workers to the mortuary station to retrieve the bodies.

This poor Afghan, maybe early 20s, shows up in a Toyota 4 runner to the mortuary and he states that he's there to pick up the cargo. I tell him that he's there to pick up 8 bodies and that I didn't think his vehicle would work. He tells me he has to get the task done, no matter what, and that he'll make it work. He proceeds to put all the seats down in his vehicle and then one by one I help him load each body.

The smell and the feel of the bodies in the bags was something I'll never forget. The first two bodies fit in the back of the vehicle easily. The second two on top of the first. But the last 4 were a challenge. We pulled and stuffed the remaining 4 with the top two bodies pushing up and over the headrest on both the passenger and driver seats to the point where the driver would have to lean way to the right to avoid the body bags while driving. Meanwhile the pushing and pulling of the bags into the vehicle caused extensive body fluid leakage all over the inside of the vehicle, including the drivers area.

I asked the driver how far he had to go and he stated that he had a 2 hour drive ahead of him. Keep in mind it's late at night and still pushing 90 degrees so the condition of the bodies was only going to get worse during the drive. After giving the guy some bottled water and hand sanitizer he was off into the night in what I can only imagine was the worst 2 hours of his life.