 |
"In
the last six months, the Pentagon has ordered 9,640 body bags,
but they are not immediately headed for the Persian Gulf. "Right
now, we're just replenishing supplies" in military warehouses,
said Frank Johnson, a spokesman for the Defense Supply Center
in Philadelphia. "It's not necessarily an indication of things
to come."
The
military shuns the term body bag, which gained widespread usage
during the Vietnam War, when 58,000 American military personnel
died. Instead, the military began calling them "human remains
pouches" during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. They are made
of vinyl and cost the government about $38 a pouch."
-- SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. |
