Source: CNN

<snip>
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.

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.

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.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/28/soldier.electrocutions/index.html

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This is OUTRAGEOUS!!! :grr: What a huge and tragic waste.

Sorry that sounds so cynical, but it's unlikely to affect KBR's bottom line.

"Freedom on the march," indeed. One of our best soldiers is dead because of your gross incompetence.

When can we pull the rest of the Green Berets out of Iraq and send them after bin Laden instead?

However when you conside the make shift nature of many of the structures, it's not suprising. My prayers go out to the young man and his family.

More sailors (USN) are killed by electricity than all other ship-board accidents combined.

Anywhere there are generators involved, somebody's gonna get hit.

It's in the grounding, just like in this case.

I didn't intend to imply that the power was the problem.

The problem is almost always human.

I once watched a guy hand-cranking a boat davit while some dumbass Electricians Mate was working on the very switch that controlled the winch.

While the poor deck-ape was cranking the winch, the EM flipped the switch.

All of a sudden, the poor guy on the crank was holding onto a metal crank that was making 600 RPM.

Completely disemboweled the poor bastard.

I stll remember his name. David Halas. And that was almost 40 years ago.

stunning. The level of incompetence boggles the mind. :crazy:

Prayers to the family. How tragic for that poor mother. :(

Army documents 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."

Rep. Henry Waxman has called for an investigation, and at least one of the families is pursuing litigation.

how many more have to die for stupid mistakes like these? :shrug:

murderous negligence? times 12?

intersting, I ahve been noting herre in the LA elections a sinmilar happening: the private companies who run our elections are required to file reports detailing problems. But there is no oversight. there is no public access to the supposed reports, nor a government official responsible for reading them. The companies oversee themselves. stealing our votes, killing people, and stealing public money.

I hope Waxman can get the ball rolling on doing something about this.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

assholes

:grr:

Needs to be said...

Then the army didn't even bother to look at the report anyway. Government at its finest.

Hey, freedom isn't free.

Someone I know got deathly ill over there from the water within the past year. They troops call it "Cheney water".

Horrible tragedies..... When will this nightmare come to an end?

Or shouldn't I ask?

death.

I. COULD. NOT. BE. ANY. MORE. ANGRY. :mad:

profited greatly from this illegal war....paid for by us the taxpayer and worse yet, by our soldiers who are sent over there and then die unneccessarily like these 12 soldiers....It's bad enough that our soldiers die in an illegal war, but worse that they die in a shower - built and serviced by KBR and the rest of the profiteers.... :grr:

"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 airport.

"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.

The Army refused to answer CNN's questions about the case, citing pending litigation by Maseth's family."

source: http://www.wtol.com/global/story.asp?s=8390075


Pat Tillman, anyone? God, this is disgusting.

we're the most incompetent country in the world.

But making BushCo and CheneyInc. rich.

This would be the fate of many more Americans if we never had Democratic legislation regarding product safety. The rethugs think we need to get out of the oversight of business business. It costs to much. Furthermore if they had their way you wouldn't be able to sue the bastards after they negligently killed you son in the shower with their shitty work. That's "tort reform."

Doing a heckova job killing our own citizens, let alone other nations' citizens.

numbers 3-12, are premeditated murder. KBR knew, and didn't care.

Hi, I'm from KBR and I'm here to help.

Yikes!!!

by the governments they serve so loyally. Not everywhere, but in too many places. What a shame.