Daily U.S. Casualties 3/24/2004

[yelladawg]

Daily U.S. Casualties 3/24/2004

As of Tuesday, 582 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq a year ago, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 394 died as a result of hostile action and 188 died of nonhostile causes, the department said.

The British military has reported 58 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Ukraine, three; Thailand, two; Denmark, Estonia and Poland have reported one each.

Since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 444 U.S. soldiers have died -- 279 as a result of hostile action and 165 of nonhostile causes, according to the military.

Since the start of military operations, 2,920 U.S. service members have been injured as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. Nonhostile injured numbered 434.

The latest death reported by U.S. Central Command:




A 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division soldier died Monday from a non-hostile shooting in Mosul, Iraq.

The latest identifications reported by the Department of Defense:


Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew S. Dang, 20, Foster City, Calif., killed Monday by hostile fire near Ar Ramady, Iraq; assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force; Camp Pendleton, Calif.


Army Pfc. Christopher E. Hudson, 21, Carmel, Ind.; killed Sunday by an explosive in Baghdad, Iraq; assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 12th Armored Cavalry Regiment; Fort Hood, Texas.


Army Pvt. Dustin L. Kreider, 19, Riverton, Kan.; died Sunday during a weapon test-firing incident near Samarra, Iraq; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.


Army Pfc. Jason C. Ludlam, 22, Arlington, Texas; electrocuted Friday while laying telephone wires in Baqouba, Iraq; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany.


Army Spc. Matthew J. Sandri, 24, Shamokin, Pa., died Saturday in rocket attack in Fallujah, Iraq; assigned to the 82nd Forward Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.


Army Maj. Mark D. Taylor, 41, Stockton, Calif.; died Saturday in rocket attack in Fallujah, Iraq; assigned to the 782nd Main Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.


Army 1st Lt. Michael W. Vega, 41, Lathrop, Calif.; died Saturday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., from injuries from a vehicle accident March 11 in Diwaniyah, Iraq; assigned to the 223rd Military Intelligence Company, 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion, Army National Guard, Sacramento, Calif.

[pippin]

1. It's now 586

as of today. Regarding:"Since the start of military operations, 2,920 U.S. service members have been injured" that is most certainly an undercount. Accurate figures of surviving but injured soldiers aren't available and the Bush administration has systematically tried to keep the public in the dark as to how many are actually wounded.


"Stars and Stripes (November 5, 2003 European edition) noted that the Landstuhl military hospital in Germanyhad "treated more than 7,000 injured and ill service members from Iraq." But at the same time, the military had recorded some 2,000 combat casualties. This discrepancy is 3.5-times (350%) between the number of wounded in combat listed by the military and the number of service personnel medically evacuated from Iraq for treatment in Germany!


The Landstuhl facility, located near the huge US air base at Ramstein Germany, reported on January 23, 2004 that the total US medical evacuations from Iraq to Germany by the end of 2003 was 9,433. The number of hostile and "non-hostile" wounded listed by the Army at that point was approximately 2,750. The under reporting of wounded continues."

One other interesting point:

"Sen. Chuck Hagel (Rep.-Nebraska), a Vietnam veteran and former deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration. Hagel had tried to obtain the "total number of
American battlefield casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq" from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. . .Hagel had been seeking an accurate, updated count on the number of Purple Hearts and the dates they were awarded to US military personnel in Iraq. That number is significant because it is an official record of the total number of battlefield casualties. After six weeks, the reply Hagel received was, "the Department of Defense does not have the requested information."
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/20040301115616.asp

[jmcgowanjm]

2. Pentagon Cooking

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1277804

The untold story of the thousands of injured U.S. military personnel now being treated for wounds in German hospitals can finally be revealed . . .

“Since the first plane arrived from Iraq on March 16, 2003,
we have evacuated 11,400. We’ve been very busy. The
most we had in one day was 168 . We have
had 60-hour weeks. We’re saving lives.”

Asked about the most common kind of injuries among the wounded-in-action soldiers, he replied that, “blast injuries
are far and away the most common.”
an unknown number of casualties are flown directly to
the United States.

Ms. Shaw, the Belgian-born civilian spokeswoman for
LRMC, confirmed that 90 percent of the U.S.
personnel evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan had
been sent to the United States for further treatment