US Army drills on mass battlefield graves for first time since Korean War

The US Army has conducted its first large-scale training since the Korean War on temporary mass burials, testing procedures at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

• The army held the exercise, called "Dragon Oath," in October at Fort Bragg, drawing engineers, preventive medicine teams, military chaplains, and casualty affairs specialists.
• Using eight bulldozers and four military excavators, soldiers prepared a five-trench burial site for about 100 remains in an average of 1 hour 15 minutes.
• The army estimated up to 2,400 bodies could be buried temporarily within 24 hours, a planning figure it said does not reflect the drill's actual simulated casualties.
• The exercise used skeletal models and sealed water bottles inside body bags, as no human remains were employed, the army said.