The Mortuary Affairs exhibit gallery, “Duty to the Fallen: The Army’s Mortuary Mission”, relates the history and the mission of Quartermaster Mortuary Affairs Specialists.

The Quartermaster Corps has been responsible for the care of the dead since the Civil War. This mission, once known as “Graves Registration”, has evolved to include not only the search and recovery of remains on the battlefield, but to respond to any mass fatality situation. Army Mortuary

Affairs Specialists deploy around the world in war and peacetime to conduct the important mission of insuring that the fallen are properly identified, returned to their families, and properly buried.

The Gallery includes artifacts belonging to the crew of the “Lady Be Good”, a B-24 bomber that crashed in the desert while returning from a mission in World War II, the discovery of which in 1957 caused a sensation. Items from other, less well-known recovery missions, relates the ongoing efforts by the Joint Prisoner of War, Missing In Action Accounting Command (JPAC) to recover and identify remains from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

The exhibit honors those whose duty it is to care for the Army’s dead. This duty to the fallen is owed on behalf of the Army and the Nation to the soldier, their comrades, and their family. It is a duty performed sadly but willingly.

For more information on this subject, please visit the QM Foundation's Mortuary Affairs History page.