Soldiers are doing a lot of difficult things these days to make life easy for us all. As the death rate climbs, veterans have now turned their attention to mortuaries.

Members of Team Rubicon UK, which is made up mainly of former men and women in uniform, has been focusing on lending a helping hand back home. While the group normally focuses on relief activities in other countries, things are getting so bad they decided to instead help out here.  

“Team Rubicon UK’s mission is all built round getting highly trained veterans into the hardest-to-reach corners of disaster zones, that’s our sweet spot,” Chief Executive Richard Sharp said.

“There was a need to backfill the mortuaries with people who could deal with mortuary admin, the sensitive moving of bodies, making sure they are properly tagged and making sure they go to their places of rest in correct order ready for burial as soon as possible,” he said.

“That is obviously a difficult task… That is people’s families who have been devastated by that loss. Our people have lived a life that [means they] have dealt with that before. While no one enjoys it they can deal with it, they can compartmentalise and they can handle those things properly, that takes a resilient kind of person. You don’t have to have served in the military but we do know there is a dearth of that experience,” he added.

The group is currently trying to help the Surrey County Council cope with the sharp rise in the number of deaths. The pandemic has been battering the healthcare system, and it didn’t take long for our armed forces to step in to help lift the burden. They have continued to support us, but have we done enough to support soldiers?

There are three temporary mortuaries operating in Surrey, and around 10 volunteers are assisting at each. Team Rubicon could expand their operation to the rest of the country soon if the need arises.

Former soldiers are uniquely positioned to help in crises such as this one. They deal with death in their faces everyday because of their jobs and that experience is what helps them become expert crisis handlers.