Meet Sgt. Keely Winter and Sgt. Kaitlynn Jackson with the 673rd Quartermaster Company (Mortuary Affairs), two of the first Army Soldiers to graduate from the Unit Recovery Team Instructor Course (URTIC). While at their unit's annual training at Fort Hunter-Liggett, California the two were afforded the opportunity to be part of the first URTIC class offered to Army Soldiers and graduated at the top of their class.
This Marine-led, 80-hour course taught students how to teach units various mortuary affairs (MA) topics such as search and recovery operations for MA and non-MA personnel, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN)-contaminated human casualties, and processing human remains at a mortuary affairs collection points (MACPs).
"Unfortunately, there's not a lot of mortuary affairs personnel in the Army. There's even fewer in the Marines, and the other branches don't have dedicated personnel for recovering...fallen Soldiers. Our job is to make sure that every unit has a team that can go out [in the field] and respectfully recover their own fallen and bring them to MA personnel to be able to bring them home", said Winter.
Winter and Jackson continually sought to represent their unit and military occupational specialty of 92Ms well by showcasing the utmost respect for the fallen and becoming consummate professionals in their field. As a result, both earned their instructor certificate. Winter received the highest grade in the class, earning the title of honor graduate. The Marine instructors gave Jackson the "Gung-Ho" award for being the most motivated individual in the class. Jackson said, "It's who I am. I love my job, so I like to be motivated, I like to know people are doing it the right way and have the information that they need."
As joint instructors, the class graduates will be provided the opportunity to travel the world to any U.S military branch or components providing guidance on mortuary affairs. Part of the instructor course included teaching approximately 700 other service members and civilians at Ft. Hunter-Liggett search and recovery operations utilizing donated cadavers.
When discussing the use of cadavers, Winter said "It tends to hit home a little more [for the students] when using the [cadavers] than it does with a mannequin. People will mess around [with a mannequin], they don't really care if they're a little rough. But when it's an actual cadaver, an actual person, you SEE it as an actual person."
Both women take great pride in their work and are honored to work for the families of the fallen; caring for their loved ones swiftly, with dignity and respect. The love for their job within the U.S. Army Reserve directly impacted their civilian career goals as a police officer (Winter) and forensics investigator (Jackson). When asked what keeps them motivated within the MA field, Winter pointed to the coins they were given by their instructors with the Greek god, Charon emblazoned on it. Just as Charon ferried the deceased souls across the river Styx into the afterlife, so too do Mortuary Affairs Specialists honor the dead by bringing them home. Winter added, "I want to bring people home. I want to honor those people who have ultimately given their lives in service to our country and our freedom."
