Autopsies
Prior to 2003, the United States military would a basic autopsy on a dead soldier. An autopsy is a forensic examination of a dead body conducted to determine why or how a person died. The family of each soldier wants to know how their son or daughter died while fighting for their country. This involved cutting open a deceased soldier’s body and looking for bullet fragments, shrapnel 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.