Prior to 2003,the United States militaly would conduct a basic autopsy on a dead soldier. An autopsy is a forensic examination of a dead body conduted to determine why or how a person died. The family of each soldier want to know how their son or daghter died while fighting for their country. This involved cutting open a deceased soldies body and looking for bullet fragments, shrapnet from land mines or other injuries. Since there are so many ways to die, it often takes many hours for a coroner to discover the cause of death. Autopsies are necessary in potential murder cases. But in the military,the cause of death is almost always due to enemy fire