In March, Duncan Stuart Todd Ltd. (DST) made history as it delivered the first fully self-
contained Mobile Embalming Unit (MEU) to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware – home of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Office and the U.S. military’s primary dignified-transfer facility.

The MEU is a fully equipped, Occupational Safety and Health Administration-compliant preparation laboratory built inside a standard 20-foot ISO shipping container. It can be transported anywhere in the world and either connected to site utilities or self-supported. The MEU includes a tracked lift system, a hydro aspirator, water controls, and climate systems engineered by DST to function in extreme cold and extreme heat.

DST, which has specialized in mortuary-facility design and equipment since 1991, had long wrestled with a question from funeral homes facing renovation shutdowns, mechanical failures and natural disasters: “What do we do when our prep room is out of commission?” A transportable lab is the answer.

In December 2023, Kevin Smith, chief of the Mortuary Affairs Division of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Office, reached out to DST with a vision: a self-
contained mobile embalming capability that could be deployed anywhere in the world. DST agreed to develop a deployable lab and later won the bid to build the world’s first mobile mortuary lab.

The implications extend well beyond military application. Among the people and circumstances the MEU is designed to support are funeral home staff facing temporary downtime, regional disasters requiring surge capacity, and underserved communities without access to traditional fixed facilities. DST hopes mobile mortuary labs become a standard resource across the profession. DuncanStuartTodd.com