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The Mortuary Affairs Specialist performs duties relating to deceased personnel to include recovery, collection, evacuation, establishment of tentative identification. They also inventory, safeguard and evacuate personal effects of deceased personnel. They also serve as team members and recovery specialists at the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii.
Some of your duties as a Mortuary Affairs Specialist may include:
Search areas for unburied dead, hasty, isolated, or unmarked graves, personal effects, and identification media
Disinter remains, records personal effects and evacuates remains and personal effects to designated points
Determine and record recovery locations on maps, sketches, and overlays
Establish and record tentative identification
Assist in preparation, preservation, and shipment of remains
Inventory, safeguard, and evacuate personal effects
Training
Job training for a Mortuary Affairs Specialist requires nine weeks of Basic Training, where you’ll learn basic Soldiering skills, and seven weeks of Advanced Individual Training. Part of this time is spent in the classroom and part in the field.
Advanced Responsibilities
Advanced level Mortuary Affairs Specialist provides guidance, supervises and trains other Soldier within the same discipline. As an advance level Mortuary Affairs Specialist, you may be involved in:
Plan and supervise the search, recovery, processing and evacuation of the remains of U.S. Armed Forces personnel
Ensure that personal effects are recovered, inventoried, and accounted for
Instruct in the handling and processing of contaminated remains
Assist in the preparation of remains for embalming
Select site location, establishing and supervising collection points for the receipt, care and
Evacuation of human remains of U.S. Service personnel
Serve on search and recovery teams for the repatriation of U.S. Service personnel remains of past wars and conflicts
Develop doctrinal products and presents mortuary affairs instruction in a formal academic setting
Advise Commanders and headquarters staff on mortuary affairs activities and coordinating mortuary affairs activities within
the command, Coordinate with non-US service authorities concerning disposition of enemy, allied, or civilian remains
Related Civilian Jobs
The skills you learn as a Mortuary Affairs Specialist will help prepare you for a future with funeral services or forensic medicine. Learn more about the relationship between military training and civilian certification requirements. You may also be able to take advantage of the PaYs program to receive preferential hiring at civilian companies.
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