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After questioning military officials for a year, a Pennsylvania mother has finally received something approaching the truth about her son's death in Iraq.
An Army investigator told Cheryl Harris that the death of her son, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth of Pittsburgh, has been reclassified as a "negligent homicide." The finding implicates military contractor KBR and two of its employees for failing to ensure the safety of electrical work in the barracks where Maseth died. No one has been charged.
Maseth, 24, was electrocuted in the shower on Jan. 2, 2008, at his base near Baghdad. Since then, the Army has compounded the tragedy by slow-walking the truth to Maseth's family.
At first, military officials said Maseth was shocked to death because he took a hair dryer into the shower. Then, it turned out that another soldier in the same barracks had complained earlier about getting shocked in the shower when he touched the fixtures. He said the electrical current was so strong that he had to use a wooden stick to turn off the water.
KBR, the Army's largest contractor, installed a new pump in the shower. A few months later, Maseth was dead. He had been assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Maseth's parents filed suit against KBR, claiming the contractor allowed soldiers to use facilities that it knew were dangerous.
Until this winter, the Army was still telling Maseth's family that his death was an accident for which nobody was responsible. But with the reclassification of his death as negligent homicide, some semblance of the truth is emerging.
Former KBR employees told Congress last summer that the contractor hired unqualified "third-country nationals" to do electrical work on military bases. At least a dozen electrocutions of soldiers on bases were being investigated at one time.
The criminal investigation into Maseth's death isn't finished. The Army has asked KBR to improve its performance - not much to ask in return for at least $24 billion in tax dollars for war contracts.
But Defense Secretary Robert Gates should be doing more to ensure the safety of troops at their bases, and to get KBR's attention. The Pentagon should bar and fine contractors who put soldiers at risk. Gates also should insist that someone other than KBR inspects the military facilities in Iraq for safety.