The Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs is a $30 million ^[1] mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. The Charles C. Carson Center is the United States Department of Defense's largest Mortuary Affairs facility and the only one located in the continental United States ^[2].

When the United States entered World War II, the airport that Dover had begun to build was taken over by the War Department. Throughout the war, the Dover Army Air Base provided a training ground for pilots and housed a rocket research facility.

Activity was at a minimum from 1946 to 1952 when the US Congress appropriated millions of dollars for improvements. Since 1955, the remains of more than 50,000 service members have arrived at Dover for identification and funeral preparations ^[1].

The mortuary staff prepares the remains of fallen U.S. service members, as well as government officials and their families stationed abroad in Europe and Southwest Asia.

The mortuary was used in 1978 for the victims of the Jonestown mass murder/suicide, 1986 for identifying the remains of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and in 2003 for the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was also a major site for identifying the remains of military personnel killed in the 9/11 attacks.

In recognition of dedicated and committed services for over two decades, Dover Air Force Base named its mortuary The Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs. The street on which the mortuary resides is also named in his honor.

Charles C. Carson, Sr. was born August 19, 1925 the son of the late Charles Carter and Alice Snow Carson in Montgomery, Alabama. He attended Alabama State High School and graduated from Tennessee State University to enable him to achieve a lifelong ambition to steady the uneasiness of and provide comfort to individuals and families experiencing the pain and agony accompanying the loss of a loved one. Carson married the former Virginia Lewis, his hometown sweetheart, in 1950. They became parents of two sons and three daughters.

Mr. Carson earned a license in mortuary science from Atlanta College of Mortuary Science in 1950 and began his career that same year as a manager with Smith and Gaston Funeral Home of Montgomary, Alabama. He served in a similar capacity with Gaston offices in Tuskegee and Mobile.

A distinguished federal career as a civilian mortician began with the Department of the Air Force in 1958. He was the deputy mortuary officer at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Republic of Vietnam and Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines from 1964 to 1970.

During the early part of the Vietnam War, he covered mortuary affairs in Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He also administered mortuary contracts in New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia. Examples of his involvement in disasters in Southeast Asia are the naval disasters aboard the USS Oriskany in 1966, the USS Forrestal in 1967 and the Vietnam Tet Offensive. Mr. Carson had supervised mortuary preparation of remains in every major disaster involving American military and civilian personnel since 1971.

He was assigned to Dover Air Force Base August of 1970 as a mortuary inspector and was promoted to Chief Port Mortuary Officer a year later. Mr. Carson applied his skills in a number of disasters, including the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Jonestown cult mass suicide in Guyana, Tenerife-Canary Islands at the request of the State Department; he served as technical advisor to the Wing and Group Commanders for mortuary affairs. He also supervised the processing of the remains of victims in the NASA Challenger mission and Desert Storm as well as the air plane disaster that claimed the life of then Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.

He retired in 1996 and died August 8, 2002 ^[1].

[edit] References