http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/28/soldier.electrocutions/index.html
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A highly decorated Green Beret, Staff
Sgt. Ryan Maseth died a painful death in Iraq this year. He died not on
the battlefield. He died in what should have been one of the safest spots
in Iraq: on a U.S. base, in his bathroom.
art.maseth.fam.jpg
Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret, died in his shower January 2.
The water pump was not properly grounded, and when he turned on the
shower, a jolt of electricity shot through his body and electrocuted him
January 2.
The next day, Cheryl Harris was informed of his death. A mother of three
sons serving in Iraq, she had feared such news might come one day.
"I did ask exactly, 'How did Ryan die? What happened to him?' And he had
told me that Ryan was electrocuted," she said.
Her reaction was disbelief. "I truly couldn't believe he would be
electrocuted ... in the shower," she said.
Maseth, 24, was not the first. At least 12 U.S. troops have been
electrocuted in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, according to
military and government officials. Video Watch mom describe horror,
heartbreak over son's electrocution »
In fact, the Army issued a bulletin in 2004 warning that electrocution
was "growing at an alarming rate." It said five soldiers died that year
by electrocution, with improper grounding the likely culprit in each
case.
The Army bulletin detailed one soldier's death in a shower -- eerily
similar to Maseth's case -- that said he was found "lying on a shower
room floor with burn marks on his body."
Maseth's mother says the Army was not immediately forthcoming with
details about her son's death.
At one point, she says, the Army told her he had a small appliance with
him in the shower on his base, a former palace complex near the Baghdad
air****t.
"It just created so much doubt, and I know Ryan, I know Ryan, I know how
he was trained, I know that he would not have been in a shower with a
small appliance and electrocuted himself," she said. Video Watch "I can't
make sense around Ryan's death" »
The Army refused to answer CNN's questions about the case, citing pending
litigation by Maseth's family.
Maseth's mother says she pressed the military for answers, eventually
uncovering more details about her son's electrocution. The surging
current left burn marks across his body, even singeing his hair. Army
re****ts show that he probably suffered a long, painful death.
Fellow soldiers had to break down the door to help, said Patrick
Cavanaugh, an attorney for Maseth's parents.
"When they kicked down the door, they smelled burning hair, and they
rushed over, saw Sgt. Maseth lying there unconscious, and one of the
rescuers himself was shocked electrically and sustained a fairly good
jolt because the water and the pipes were still electrified," Cavanaugh
said.
Army do***ents obtained by CNN show that U.S.-paid contractor Kellogg,
Brown and Root (KBR) inspected the building and found serious electrical
problems a full 11 months before Maseth was electrocuted.
KBR noted "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of
electrical devices." But KBR's contract did not cover "fixing potential
hazards." It covered repairing items only after they broke down.
Only after Maseth died did the Army issue an emergency order for KBR to
finally fix the electrical problems, and that order was carried out soon
thereafter.
In an internal e-mail obtained by CNN, a Navy captain admits that the
Army should have known "the extent of the severity of the electrical
problems." The e-mail then says the reason the Army did not know was
because KBR's inspections were never reviewed by a "qualified government
employee."
Larraine McGee is the mother of Sgt. Christopher Everett, another soldier
electrocuted in Iraq.
"The impression I got was that this was the first time that it had
happened," McGee said.
Her son was cleaning a Humvee on his Iraqi base with a power washer that
was not properly grounded in 2005.
"I thought Chris was the first and that because of that, they were going
to correct the problem, and it wasn't going to happen again," she said.
When she learned of Maseth's electrocution, she was stunned.
"It makes me very angry, because there is no reason for this to be going
on," said McGee.
The electrocution of soldiers is prompting anger in Wa****ngton.
"How did this happen?" asked Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House
Oversight Committee.
Waxman has called for an investigation. "Why wasn't it corrected when we
had the first signs that people were dying from electrocutions?"
In a statement to CNN, the U.S. Department of Defense said it "considers
this to be a serious issue and has referred it to the DoD Inspector
General's office for action."
The Defense Department said that there are nearly 40,000 structures and
housing units in the Iraqi theater and that "we believe there was
adequate oversight of the KBR contractors."
"In the past 12 months, KBR performed over 2 million service or work
order repairs across the theater," the Defense Department said.
It went on to say that the Pentagon has "no information" that personnel
with Defense Contract Management Agency, which handles the KBR contract,
was aware of the 2004 Army bulletin or that they "failed to take
appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our
attention."
The Defense Department inspector general's office said it could not
comment on the new investigation at this time.
KBR declined a CNN interview, but in an e-mail the company said it found
"no evidence of a link between the work it has been tasked to perform and
the re****ted electrocutions."
The Defense Contract Management Agency declined to be interviewed, citing
the Defense Department investigation.
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Harris says she will continue to fight to make sure other soldiers don't
die similar deaths.
"I'm not going to sit around quietly," she said. "I want the answers
surrounding Ryan's death -- the accountability. And even further, I want
to make sure that our troops are taken care of that are left on the
ground ... [so] they don't have to wake up and worry about taking a
shower and electrocution."
-----
It IS good to know all that money wasn't wasted eh???
If little georgie doesn't get you killed by an IED his good buddies in
KBR and Haliburton will get you in the shower...
--
AW
<small but dangerous>
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