In October, U.S. Army soldiers were photographed while practicing digging mass graves for “for large-scale battlefield temporary interment.”
It wasn’t clear precisely what the exercise was in preparation for, though it appears the conclusions some people drew about an imminent or specific threat originated from social media, not the Army itself. We reached out to the Army for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.
Images purportedly showing U.S. soldiers practicing digging mass battlefield graves circulated on social media in late October.
According to several posts, the purpose of the supposed grave-digging rehearsal was to prepare soldiers for large-scale temporary burial until bodies could be identified and returned home in the case of mass casualties as the U.S. war on Iran stretched on.
“DISTURBING: The U.S. Army is now training soldiers to dig MASS BATTLEFIELD GRAVES for American troops as the war continues,” one Facebook post read (archived).
Both the image and the claim were real. The images were originally distributed (archived) on Oct. 22 by the Department of Defense’s media distribution service.
According to the photo credit, they were taken by Capt. Thomas McCarty on Oct. 21. The caption called the operation a “simulated temporary interment trench,” meaning that soldiers were practicing digging 15-foot-wide trenches for temporary burial of bodies so that they could later be identified and relocated. The full caption read:
A U.S. Army D6 bulldozer, operated by horizontal construction engineers from the 20th Engineer Brigade, backfills a simulated temporary interment trench during Phase II of Operation Dragon Covenant near the St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, Oct. 21, 2026. The test-of-concept exercise, executed by the 3rd Corps Sustainment Command, evaluated the structural impact of heavy earthmoving equipment on remains by placing simulated skeletal models and sealed water containers inside burial bags. Operators practiced casting dirt inward from a 15-foot-wide trench to verify that the gravity fall of displaced soil preserves remains intact for future forensic identification and repatriation, while refining spatial standards for future Army fatality management doctrine. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Thomas McCarty)
McCarty later wrote a report on the training exercise that both the Defense Department and the Army website published. (The article on the Army website appeared to no longer be available, as of this writing.)
According to McCarty, the exercise was “an operational reality the U.S. Army has not executed at scale since the Korean War.”
The report detailed how in a 24-hour period of continuous operations, a crew could bury up to 2,400 bodies.
“Backfilling without desecrating the remains is where the real skill lies,” one engineering officer reportedly said.
