This battle is not going to be pretty.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/310/...up_morg:.shtml
Military hospital sets up morgue, doubles staff in preparation for Fallujah assault
By Jim Krane
Associated Press
11/5/2004
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) The combat hospital on the chief U.S. base near Fallujah has set up a morgue and doubled medical staff and supplies in preparation for an expected stream of casualties from an anticipated assault on the rebel stronghold.
''We've had 20 to 30 casualties on a given day here. We expect maybe double that on a serious day. And we can handle them,'' Capt. Eric Lovell, a Navy doctor, said Thursday at the base hospital, a low concrete building announced by a sign saying ''Cheaters of Death.''
The hospital added a Marine Mortuary Affairs team last month, a unit charged with identifying dead troops, cataloguing their personal effects and preparing their bodies for the flight to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
The morgue team counts 16 reservists trained in handling corpses of U.S. troops as well as Iraqi civilians and fighters that arrive at the hospital here, said Commander Lach Noyes, a Navy surgeon. The morgue team also travels to bomb scenes to recover body parts and corpses that need to be extracted from vehicles, Noyes said.
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