China kills 14 U.S. soldiers in Iraq
Pastor Dale Morgan
China kills 14 U.S. soldiers in Iraq*
Families demand answers in Iraq electrocutions
'It's such a basic thing to ground electricity. It's carelessness,
negligence'
By Robin Acton
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower
Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as
a "killer of soldiers."
Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet,
water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical
system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current
surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body.
His heart stopped.
Maseth's electrocution, the latest of 14 among service personnel in Iraq
since 2003, set into motion a series of events to determine how and why
these deaths occurred.
In March, a congressional committee started an investigation into all
Iraq electrocutions. A month later, Maseth's parents sued the defense
contractor responsible for the Chinese electrical system, alleging it
failed to meet U.S. safety standards. And now, families across the
country say they want more detailed information about the earlier deaths
of loved ones.
"I want answers, not revenge," said Bart Cedergren of South St. Paul,
Minn., who suspects his son died of electrocution Sept. 11, 2005, near
Iskandariyah, Iraq.
Back then, the Navy said Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25,
died of natural causes after being found unconscious in a shower stall,
he said. Although Cedergren asked for additional information, he said he
received only documents with black marks covering specifics of the
investigation that the Navy has closed.
"I know for sure that there were problems where he was, near the
electric generating station, because there was a history of individuals
getting shocked," Cedergren said. "I just want to know what happened. He
was strong and healthy."
Hidden danger
No one knows whether everyone serving in Iraq is aware of the potential
for electrocution, despite warnings in an October 2004 report by Army
safety specialist Brett Blount. He wrote that five soldiers were
electrocuted in that fiscal year alone and advised military leaders to
get electrical experts to inspect generators and electrical systems.
Frank Trent of the Army Corps of Engineers said in the report that
improper grounding was a "factor in nearly every electrocution and is a
serious threat for soldiers and civilians there."
"We've had several shocks in showers and near misses here in Baghdad, as
well as in other parts of the country," Trent said. "As we install
temporary and permanent power on our projects, we must ensure we require
our contracts to properly ground electrical systems."
The electric shock that struck Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, 23, of
Huntsville, Texas, far exceeded a "near miss."
It was dead on target.
On the evening of Sept. 7, 2005, Everett was electrocuted while power
washing sand from a Humvee in a motor pool in Al Taqqadum. It was late,
and dark, and no one saw him on the ground until other soldiers noticed
water shooting into the air. His mother, Larraine McGee, later learned
that they were shocked while trying to help him.
"They couldn't get to him until the power was turned off," McGee said.
She remembers standing at the kitchen sink window facing her front porch
as two men in uniform and her priest walked to the front door. She knew
then that her son, an outdoorsman who volunteered to go to Iraq, would
not come home.
Never, for the rest of her life, will she forget that night.
She said Army officers said they were sorry, and that because of what
happened to her son, all of the generators across Iraq would be fixed.
She felt comforted, recalling that they gave her the impression that
Christopher's case was unique, the first of its kind to strike
unsuspecting soldiers.
They didn't tell her about Spc. Marcos O. Nolasco, 34, of Chino, Calif.,
who was electrocuted while showering at a base in Baiji on May 18, 2004.
No one mentioned Spc. Marvin A. Camposiles, 25, of Austell, Ga., who was
electrocuted April 17, 2005, while performing routine generator
maintenance in Samarra. They said nothing about Spc. Chase R. Whitham,
21, of Harrisburg, Ore., who died May 8, 2005, when an electrical
current surged through a Mosul swimming pool.
"That, to me, makes it inexcusable. It's got to stop," McGee said. "Now,
I'm angry. It's such a basic thing to ground electricity. It's
carelessness, negligence."
Seeking answers
It is unclear whether all electrocution injuries and deaths in Iraq are
listed in military casualty reports, because they often are identified
as accidents or noncombat-related incidents.
Lt. Col. George Wright, a public affairs officer based at the Pentagon,
said the Department of Defense releases names of casualties about 24
hours after notifying relatives. At that point, investigations into
noncombat deaths are incomplete.
"That's why we are vague and simply indicate that a death is 'noncombat
related,' " Wright said.
A casualty report prepared by the Defense Manpower Data Center listed 14
electrocution deaths in nonhostile situations and two in hostile
situations from Oct. 7, 2001, through May 3, 2008. Electrocution
injuries totaled 19, according to the report.
About a month after Maseth's death, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire,
D-McCandless, received two e-mails about military casualty reports that
disturbed him.
A Feb. 14 e-mail to Altmire from Kelly Widener, director of strategic
communications for the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center,
reported that 10 fatalities by electrocution were identified only as
accidents. The other, sent on Feb. 15 by Sgt. Jennifer Evitts, a Marine
liaison, listed two more.
Altmire immediately asked U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from
California's 30th District and chair of the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, to investigate the deaths. Waxman wrote to Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates, seeking all reports concerning Maseth and the
names of all U.S. military or contractor personnel injured or killed by
electrocution in Iraq facilities maintained under U.S. government contracts.
Waxman asked for contracts, orders and reports submitted by and issued
to Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc., a Texas-based defense contractor
whose nearly 18,000 employees in Iraq perform building maintenance and
other services for the military at facilities where the electrocutions
occurred.
Karen Lightfoot, Waxman's spokeswoman, said the committee received some
documents and expects to receive more as the investigation advances.
"We're trying to determine who should be held accountable, and whether
this could have been prevented," Altmire said.
Meanwhile, Maseth's parents, Cheryl Harris of Cranberry and Douglas
Maseth of Allison Park, turned to the courts for help.
In April, they sued KBR in federal court, alleging the firm inspected
the facilities at the Radwaniyah complex where their son died. They
claim the contractor knew that hazardous conditions existed from
improper grounding of faulty electrical systems manufactured in China
for sale only to countries outside the United States because they did
not comply with U.S. electrical safety standards.
The wrongful death lawsuit contends that the contractor knew of other
electrocutions and failed to repair electrical problems, despite orders
to do so from the Defense Contract Management Agency. It adds that KBR
did nothing to warn U.S. troops.
Their attorney, Patrick Cavanaugh of Pittsburgh, said the family is
seeking accountability from the defense contractor, as well as some
answers about how he died.
They view his death as senseless.
"You don't expect your son to step into a shower and get killed," Harris
told the Tribune-Review after Maseth's death.
Heather Browne, KBR's director of corporate communications, wrote in an
e-mail to the Tribune-Review that the company's "thoughts and prayers
remain with Staff Sergeant Maseth's family." She said the company's
commitment to safety is unwavering.
"Based on our own current knowledge and the information we have gathered
to date, KBR has found no evidence of a link between the work it has
been tasked to perform and reported electrocutions," Browne wrote.
Meanwhile, in Salem, Ore., Mark Whitham is not surprised by the number
and frequency of electrocutions in Iraq.
During an interview on the fourth anniversary of his son's death in a
Mosul swimming pool, Whitham did not blame the military or the defense
contractor.
"If anything, it's the Iraqis' fault. Their rules for electrical
grounding are not as strict as ours," Whitham said.
"Not that there isn't anger there, but it's not going to bring Chase
back. It's not going to change anything. ... We sure miss him."