hi
Do they or did they do burial at sea?
Any record of those that were buried this way?
Thanks Rick

yes, they do. My uncle was buried at sea few years ago.

On the USS SEMMES DDG18 june or july 1973,While in port in Portsmouth England on a NATO cruise,In port for a few days before heading out for Charleston,A body in a casket was brought aboard before leaving port and setting in a shallow wooden box filled with wood chips,The body set there in the sun.The body was a man that was in WW2 and a aviator that retired in England.After getting a few miles out to sea we had the burial at sea,The handles that you carried the casket with was pulled off leaving holes for the water to fill the casket, The body was slid over the side by the stbd. quarter deck.But THE CASKET DIDNT SINK,The gunnermates was called to the fantail with the rifles,They shot aprox. 20 or 30 rounds into the wooden casket but still wouldnt sink,The bridge passed the word for me to put the whale boat in the water,The snipes brought a big valve from below and the GMs gave me a 5" shell and myself with a couple of BMs along with a Officer and we went out to the casket,The top of the wood casket was shot up quite a bit and the body,Which I can still see was in a plastic bag and you could see the body had a green suit on but a lot of gas was built up in the bag keeping it from sinking,We tied the valve and the shell to the casket,There was pieces of flesh around the outside of the casket floating in the water,We slid the the valve and the shell over the side of the whale boat and something I will never forget was a arm came up and out of the top of the casket still attached to the body and the water was clear,The arm looked like it was waving while it was sinking,When the whale boat got back at the edge of the 02 level the corpman told us to the sick bay so we could get a small bottle of whiskey,After leaving the sick bay I walkev thru the mess decks headed to the foward CPO quarters and the cooks was cooking steaks and I just about lost it,I had to take my dress blues to the laundry so they could be washed,I have never smelled anything like that before,The CO sent the funeral home a letter getting on them for not putting enough slate in the casket so it would sink,They was to put 300 lb of slate inside but I dont think they did.Nobody ever wants to experence what we did that day,That was the only time I ever turned down a steak in my life.

oh wow, I am sorry you had to experience that. nowadays, they are creamted. The ashes can either be scattered or placed in a small box and piepd overboard.

The Semmes burial as sea story is definitely true,I was there and am certainly glad they cancelled the ceremony on the fantail due to very bad sea conditions in the English Channel.

The guys in the Motor whaleboat all deserve a lot of respect for going out in those conditions. We were very lucky none of them died while trying to show sime respect for a former sailor.

They still have burials at sea. They not only accept cremains (cremated remains), but they also accept bodies.

The ceremony is actually really nice and the family can request a video of the ceremony and a letter from the Commanding Officer. My last ship would provide the family with a chart with the coordinates marked at which the body was committed to the sea.

HMC(SW) Canterbury, IDC
MHC CREW GALLANT

In 1999 John F. Kennedy Jr. was buried at sea off of the fantail of the USS Briscoe.

Yea he got speical treatment while sailors remains were sitting in a warehouse in Norfolk. His wife and sister-in-law did not qualify for a naval burial at sea but got it anyway. Old slick Willie and Uncle Killer Ted pulled strings for that.

I plan on a burial at sea as well as my father since we both served honorably.

As a QM i did a lot of those. All cremated ashes that came in wooden boxes. We had a slide for it and when we buried them we would open the paper bag that held the ashes and opened the lid of the box. Off it went.

Never had a problem...always done a very respectful job. I would later go up to the bridge, get the exact way point of the burial and go back to the chart house with the 1st class and design a decorated compass rose at the burial site with the shipmate's vitals. And we packed the chart and sent it back to the family.

Yup still do them. I was on the USS Nevada (SSBN) and we kept the ashes of a guy from the Nevada (BB) in the COs safe for years. It was a turn over item for the COs "here's what happend on patrol, Bob's still in the safe".

The guy was one of the crew in WW2 on the BB Nevada, and wanted to be buried where she lies. The Nevada was sunk following the Baker Nuke tests in the South Pacific.

We did a nice ceremony topside and the COB dumped the ashes over the side while we had taps played by a member of the crew. We also did the traditional rifle salute too. It was a very nice service.

quote:

Originally posted by gm_2:
As a QM i did a lot of those. All cremated ashes that came in wooden boxes. We had a slide for it and when we buried them we would open the paper bag that held the ashes and opened the lid of the box. Off it went.

Never had a problem...always done a very respectful job. I would later go up to the bridge, get the exact way point of the burial and go back to the chart house with the 1st class and design a decorated compass rose at the burial site with the shipmate's vitals. And we packed the chart and sent it back to the family.

I did a couple of them during my first deployment on the JASON back in 1989.

Burial at sea ceremony aboard USS Enterprise
Burial at sea

You can have your ashes scattered at sea.Which in my opinion is very fitting for someone who spent their career in the Navy orCoast Gaurd. Especialy if that person died at sea. This can be a very moving ceremony when done with all of the military honors abord a Navy vessel.
As far as just wrapping a body up and dumping it overboard. I dont think so, but I could be wrong.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: athenia89,

Sign me up for the traditional Submarine burial at sea. Shoot my butt out of a torpedo tube.

quote:

Originally posted by athenia89:
You can have your ashes scattered at sea.Which in my opinion is very fitting for someone who spent their career in the Navy orCoast Gaurd. Especialy if that person died at sea. This can be a very moving ceremony when done with all of the military honors abord a Navy vessel.
As far as just wrapping a body up and dumping it overboard. I dont think so, but I could be wrong.

I saw a burial @sea the first time I ever rode a Navy vessel: this was June of '82, & the casket had been sitting in a warehouse since Feb. My understanding @the time was that our ship was the first to be operating near the coordinates that the deceased'd named.

Back then one needed to be eligible for burial @sea, one needed to cite the desire in one's will, & one had to name coordinates in the ocean: I know my dad'd wanted to be buried @sea (cremains), but he didn't qualify, or rather was told he didn't qualify.

I also witnessed a scattering of ashes @sea, with our XO doing the honors; unfortunately, our conning off., utterly oblivious in typical JO fashion, ordered a course change @that moment, & the ashes blew into the XO's face: not a solemn occasion.

Anyway, early this year bro. & I took mom's & dad's ashes & scattered them @the mouth of the Susquehanna @Havre de Grace: dad'd grown up around them parts. (Mom had not, but she had agreed that she & dad should be together in death.)