another 'untruth'? say it ain't so

Army changes story about soldier's death

Army knew for a year he was not killed in action


Saturday, September 10, 2005; Posted: 1:48 p.m. EDT (17:48 GMT)

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.
The Army disclosed Saturday that Ballard, 26, actually died of wounds from the accidental discharge of a M240 machine gun on his tank after his platoon had returned from battling insurgents in Najaf.
An Army spokesman, Col. Joseph Curtin, said separate investigations by the local commander and by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division concluded within days Ballard's death was an accident.
The tank backed into a tree and a branch hit the mounted, unmanned machine gun, causing it to fire, Curtin said. Ballard was struck at close range and died of his wounds, he added.
Reason for year's delay unknown
For reasons that are not clear, the Army did not correct the public record and inform the family until Friday...............

i am sorry for your loss ms meredith.