A senior mortuary employee at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware twice offered horrified inspectors a peek at American icon John Glenn’s dead body while the famed astronaut awaited burial earlier this year, according to an internal memo obtained by Military Times.

The disturbing allegation has outraged Pentagon officials and sparked a top-level investigation to determine whether misconduct was committed. The memo, written by Deborah Skillman, the Defense Department’s director of casualty and mortuary affairs, states the employee’s alleged actions were “clearly inappropriate and personally shocking.” The document is dated May 11…

“Concerning to me,” her memo states, “is that even after Mr. Zwicharowski was counseled by his chain of command regarding the inappropriate nature of his earlier offer, he repeated it. … This breach of protocol is serious and troubling as these offers were made to members of an official Department of Defense inspection team on-site to inspect the facility and determine whether it was in compliance with applicable procedures and policy and being well-run by its leadership.”