The families of seven soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan were given incorrect or misleading information about the deaths, the Army has concluded after a review of war casualty reports.
The review, which began last summer, covered hundreds of casualty reports and marked the first step in a new process ordered by Army Secretary Francis Harvey to ensure that families receive accurate information.
An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, said Monday the review found seven cases in which families were given erroneous information. The best-known was Cpl. Patrick Tillman, the former National Football League player whose family initially was told he had been killed by enemy forces in Afghanistan. After Tillman's memorial service the family was told the truth: He was killed unintentionally by gunfire from his fellow soldiers.
The Tillman case triggered a series of highly publicized Army investigations, leading to Harvey's decision last April to begin a unit-level investigation of every soldier's death, rather than only under certain circumstances.
The Army has not released final results from the Tillman and some other death investigations, but in general it has said misunderstandings and miscommunication - not criminal negligence - are to blame for incorrect casualty reporting.
More than 1,800 Army soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; about 240 have died in Afghanistan. Overall, more than 2,800 U.S. military members have died since the start of the Iraq war.
The issue of inaccurate casualty information resurfaced last summer when Army officials revealed that two California National Guardsmen - Lt. Andre Tyson and Spc. Patrick McCaffrey - were murdered in June 2004 by the Iraqi civil-defense soldiers they were training. The Army initially told the men's families they were killed in an enemy ambush.
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