Army Changes Story, page 1

posted on Sep, 10 2005 @ 06:04 PM

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Over a year ago, the family of 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard was informed that he was killed in the line of duty by enemy fire. However, the army has now revisited the issue to inform the family that he was killed by accident when a weapon discharged. There are now questions on why the military waited so long to inform the family.

www.cnn.com
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Army said Saturday it knew for more than a year that 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard was not killed in action in Iraq, as it initially reported.

The family was not told the truth until Friday.

Ballard's mother, Karen Meredith, of Mountain View, California, is a public critic of the war. She traveled last month to Crawford, Texas, to participate in the protest outside President Bush's ranch by another grieving mother, peace activist Cindy Sheehan.

On Memorial Day in 2004, the day after Kenneth Ballard died, the Army informed his family that he had been killed by enemy fire while on a combat mission in the south-central Iraqi city of Najaf.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

My sympathy goes out to the family as they will now have more questions than answers about the circumstances surrounding the death of their family member.

For example:

Why did the army take so long to inform the family if they knew within a couple weeks?

How many other mistakes have been made by the army in reporting deaths?

On the conspiracy side,

Does the timing of reporting the year old findings have anything to do with his mother's political activism?

How does a gun misfire by being hit by a tree branch?

Hopefully, in the future, the military will inform the famiily members of fallen soldiers more accurately and quicker.

Mod Edit: Removed ATSNN sub title

[edit on 9/13/05 by FredT]

FredT

posted on Sep, 10 2005 @ 11:52 PM

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This story actually appeared in our daily paper as he was from the city right next to ours. The mother and family is right to be upset as any of us would be in this matter. It is interesting to note that she also has been a public critic of the war and had joined another San Francisco Bay Area resident , Cindy Sheehan, in protesting outside of President Bush's ranch. But as the mother notes I doubt that this was an intentional move as the Army would never want this kind of bad press.

clearmind

posted on Sep, 11 2005 @ 12:44 AM

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if we weren't so pre-occupied with everything else, even before katrina....we, as a nation, would have already noticed that the govt lies, or that hey make a VERY fine line about KIA's and WIA's. the casualties are much higher than reported. do your own search..or just search ATS.....

how macob to ask those that have lost someone, to see if thier loved one is on the official 'died in action iin iraq' list or on the 'died in service list'................but it needs to be done

FredT

posted on Sep, 11 2005 @ 12:48 AM

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Nah the counts are fairly accurate less families start getting together and talking. Not that they are not already. Its exceedingly difficult to conceal such a large scale loss of life as some people assert not has anybody produced any credible evidence.

I do not think its macabe to inform the families the manner in which thier loved one died (or not in this case) and would in fact demand to have details about the event. (Perhaps not minute details) but some nonethless