I really hate that smell

tapwater

....There's been way too many blow flies around. Cath found a dead bunny under the pool deck. Jeez, he was 'bout ready to burst. I told her, "You found it, you bury it".
....Well, after I buried it, the stench is still lingering. It makes me wonder how troops could ever stand to do graves registration duty. It's an honorable and neccessary job, but they must have steel stomachs.
....As we give thanks today, to those who have and are serving America, we need to remember those who maybe never saw battle, yet their jobs require more guts that most of us have. As long as I've already gotten off track, remember the folks serving in supply, culinary, transport and all the other fields that are neccessary for an effective fighting force.

DancesWithSheep

One of the ironies of Vietnam, at least in the Marine Corps early in the war, was helicoptering into Danang to wait for a flight to take you on R&R. Unfortunately, the R&R staging area was on Hill 327 next to Graves Registration, so for two or three days before flying out, and for two or three days after flying in while awaiting transport back to your unit, you got to hear the embalming machines at night and see all the Hefty bags lined up in tidy little rows in the morning. A real morale booster. Can I get a HOO-RAH?

Ray B

One of my assignments in 1968 was with the graves registration unit near 327. We didn't embalm the bodies there. Most were processed through to Okinawa, or if identification/embalming was needed immediately, they went over to the Army mortuary, near the airbase. The "coroner" that did identification of pretty well decomposed bodies, by examining dental features, etc had a cigar in his mouth and a constant plume of smoke around his head. Even so, all had to develope breathing through their mouth to keep the nose as inactive as possible. Yeah, it was great duty.[xx(]