CAMP GRAYLING, Mich. -- The acidic smell of chemicals and metal filled the Grayling Army Airfield warehouse, lit by bright white, stinging fluorescent lights as Danielle Wilk, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations embalmer, looked forward, straightening her ventilation mask one last time before stepping forward to apply her 23 years of experience to create mortuary history.
Next to her stood her team of Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations embalmers, mortuary specialists, and chaplains, who went on to successfully operate the first expeditionary mortuary at Northern Strike 25-2, redefining the standard for all mortuary affairs practices in a contested environment.
The AFMAO team were key players in the yearly exercise, with 2025 marking the first year the command has physically participated in the events in Michigan. Northern Strike as a whole is a joint-based annual exercise redefining the standard focus on building readiness and interoperability among different branches of the U.S. military and international partners. AFMAO participated under the Joint Fatality Management Exercise portion.
AFMAO members from Dover Air Force Base, home to the nation’s sole CONUS port mortuary, brought a strong and experienced team of Mortuary Affairs specialists, Air Force and Navy embalmers, planners, and chaplain leadership. AFMAO specialists from Operating Location Europe, located at Ramstein Air Force Base, also played a major role integrating with the participating branches' mortuary personnel, ensuring the teams could train side by side while gaining a deeper understanding of each service’s mortuary roles and responsibilities.
Other members of the expeditionary mortuary team included Force Support Contingency Training Instructors from different regions, both overseas and in the continental United States, U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman, and a Joint Mortuary Affairs Center mortician.
The AFMAO team entered the exercise with a goal of expediting the mortuary process in the scenario of a mass casualty situation in a highly contested environment. This put mortuary affairs personnel in positions where they must shorten their usual processes, and focus on completing multiple procedures in a day. This involved receiving remains, embalming, then completing a full body-wrap, a process that normally takes multiple hours.
The team set a goal of 30-minutes for both the embalming and wrap portion, an ambitious feat with the strict guidelines of continuing to serve dignity, honor, and respect to the fallen and continuing to operate with the stringent standards that AFMAO has for embalming and wrapping.
One of the standout AFMAO morticians who participated in Northern Strike was Danielle Wilk. Wilk has been practicing mortuary science for 23 years, U.S. Army veteran, and has been at AFMAO for 10 years. Throughout the week, she served as an instructor as well as a proof of concept for the 30 minute process, completing embalming and wrapping with her teammates in under the goal time on multiple occasions.
“The 30-minute embalming is relatively unheard of. As funeral directors and morticians, embalming typically focuses on three elements: sanitation, restoration, and preservation,” Wilk explained. “When we showcased this expeditionary mortuary, we did so with the understanding that the remains we would be receiving would most likely be non-viewable. Because of that, restoration was less of a concern, while preservation remained the priority.”
Wilk worked alongside her AFMAO teammates Matthew McCloskey and Matthew Metschke, as well as JMAC, and the two U.S. Navy HMs. The team worked throughout the week testing the process, learning how to overcome potential slow-downs, and trained jointly.
The expeditionary mortuary differs from the normal embalming suite at Dover AFB, where there is ventilation built in. The expeditionary mortuary was located in a warehouse on the Grayling Air Field, making ventilation a challenge the team had to overcome by only allowing those with portable respiratory masks to participate.
The expeditionary mortuary consisted of two embalming tables and a field constructed drainage system, arterial and hypodermic embalming machines and fluid, an eye-wash station, and portable respiratory systems. Next to the embalming suite there were multiple tables and lifts, prepared with sheets and blankets to complete the wrappings. AFMAO personnel acted as instructors for the U.S. Army 92M, also known as mortuary affairs specialist, from the Puerto Rico National Guard and Personnel Retrieval and Processing Company U.S. Marines participating in the exercise as well. Force Support Contingency Training Instructors taught how re-ice remains inside of transfer cases, a mission AFMAO highly relies on from other operating locations.
“In this circumstance, we're talking about large numbers. There's no refrigeration. If there's no refrigeration, then embalming must take place for us to send remains home,” explains Wilk. “There's multiple pieces to that, like how are remains coming home? Is it through sea lift? They might be required to have the embalming done prior because it could take months to get back to the port. So having the embalming piece set up in a field environment on this expeditionary mortuary was something that we could use to showcase our capability.”
The culminating event tested the team’s ability to perform the new capability, and they surpassed their goals, creating a new standard for all future expeditionary mortuaries. The team worked diligently to complete the embalming process in 30-minutes, six times. They were then handed to the Marines and Soldiers completed full body wraps within the time limit as well.
Wilk highlighted the importance of collective effort and constructive criticism in achieving success. She also explained how this exercise allowed them to truly test the process by allowing mortuary personnel to get the exposure needed in order to operate in a real-world scenario where an expeditionary mortuary may be utilized.
“It was great to see everybody come together and actively work together, having the cadavers present offered some exposure to people in the mortuary affairs field who may not have seen remains, as they're working in a mortuary affairs environment with mannequins,” explained Wilk, who was impressed with the other career fields ability to adapt to mortuary practices as well. “It's a much different outlook when you're actually working with remains. I think, was a very pivotal piece and it brought excitement to learning the job.”
Matthew Metschke, AFMAO case management branch chief, participated in the events of the exercise alongside Wilk and the other morticians. Metschke, a former Army 92M from 2001-2005, explained the takeaways he and his team were able to gain from the experience.
“It's doable. It's 100% achievable, and it didn't look sloppy, and it still maintained dignity, honor and respect.” Metschke said. “The biggest thing for next year is we're going to have a new piece of equipment. So what we learned this year is going to be different, because now we're going to be testing something in our environment that we've already tested.”
AFMAO now plans to operate in future exercises with a Mobile Embalming Unit, narrowing down exactly what is needed and what needs to be prioritized to best expedite the mortuary mission in a contested environment. A MEU would allow the expeditionary mortuary to be set up in more remote locations.
Master Sgt. Gary Adamoyurka, mortuary affairs and honor guard program manager at AFMAO Operating Location Europe, discusses how his job would change in the case of a mass casualty event, with the Air Force taking on a more advisory role to senior leaders. He explains that his team would handle day-to-day operations, but would also step back to advise during large-scale combat operations. The mobile embalming units would be deployed to assist in the process, and his team would continue to provide expertise and support.
“There are no Marine PRP units within Europe. There are limited 92M’s, so that responsibility would fall on the Air Force to lead the initiative and get collection points and processes started,” Adamoyurka explained. “We have to be ready to execute. Stop admiring it, and get after how we are going to ensure that we get our fallen back home.”
Many moving factors play into the success of a mortuary, some of which must be expanded upon and made adaptable in new conditions. With the participation from joint partnerships and allies, mortuary can move on from often being viewed as a reactive measure to something that must be prioritized now, in order to give fallen service members the dignity they have earned.
“Mortuary Affairs is something that most people don’t want to think about, but when you need it, it better be there and be right the first time,” said U.S. Air Force Major Leslie Knight, AFMAO plans and programs division key exercise planner. “How we care for our fallen quickly goes from an ‘afterthought’ to a highly visible problem overnight. It is our job to have the answers before the questions are asked.”
AFMAO aims to set the standard for all mortuary procedures, no matter the scale or circumstance, Knight added. “As leaders in the mortuary affairs community, we owe it to our senior leaders to be moving the pendulum forward, always.”