# body clean-up

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-clean-up/31450>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 31, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-clean-up/31450 "2000-08-31T04:25:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mellonhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@mellonhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mellonhead)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-clean-up/31450/1 "2000-08-31T04:25:47Z")

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We were watching Full Metal Jacket the other night and I got to wondering: in warfare, who does the body clean-up after a “battle”? What happens to the enemy bodies? How often are the bodies just left to rot? What happens if the dog tags are lost on a body from your side (I’m assuming if you’re dead and somewhere on the enemy side you’re not going home to a proper burial…or are you)?

Any army ranger type folks out there?

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**Author:** ![Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trout_Mask_Replica)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/body-clean-up/31450/2 "2000-08-31T13:15:03Z")

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I’d assume the corpses aren’t left to rot if at all possible, since dead bodies spread disease. My WAG – whoever’s left in control of the battlefield bulldozes a big trench, dumps the bodies in, and covers it over again.