Army Plans Group Services for Troops Killed in Iraq

Overwhelmed by numbers, military bases are beginning to hold collective memorial services for service members killed in Iraq instead of individual services after each death. The Times visits Fort Lewis, which has floated the idea and met with resistance from families and veterans. The country's third-largest army base, outside Tacoma, lost 20 soldiers in May alone.

The largest army base, Fort Hood in Texas, already conducts group services with individual eulogies, which "has worked phenomenally well," a spokeswoman says. The general who announced the new Fort Lewis policy said it would offer families "the opportunity to bond," but one soldier's wife counters, "I don’t know if it’s more convenient for them, or what, but that’s insane." (More memorial services stories.)