Pentagon casualty database omits two U.S. service member deaths in the Middle East during the Iran war
One of the missing names is Maj. Sorffly Davius of the 42nd Infantry; both men died on missions unrelated to the fighting with Iran.
The omission. More U.S. troops have died in the Middle East since the war with Iran began than the Defense Department has acknowledged in public, The Washington Post reported on Friday, Sept. 18. The Pentagon's casualty database — the running public list of service member deaths, the one families and reporters use to count the war's cost — leaves out at least two men who were deployed to the region and died there while on missions unconnected to the conflict, according to that report. The officials. Defense officials told The Post they were frustrated that the deaths do not appear in the database. The Post identified one of the two men; his name and unit could not be independently confirmed, and this account does not repeat them. Still open. The Pentagon has not responded to the report. It has not said whether the two names will be added, how many deaths in the region it counts as war-related, or how it draws that line.
PREVIOUSLY
- Aug. 17 — Centcom answered complaints about conditions aboard the carrier Lincoln, at sea 260 days, by citing its low count of mental health cases.
- Aug. 25-26 — ICE detained the father of a deployed Navy sailor after about 20 years in the U.S then released him a day later.
- Sept. 1 — Four four-star commanders were reported to have objected to keeping more than 50,000 troops in the Middle East.
- Sept. 3 — The Pentagon pulled decades of Defense Secretary orders records off its classified SIPR network, days after that reporting.