Monday, March 30, 2009

US Troops Still Dodging Deadly Showers

Military races to inspect more than 90,000 facilities to reduce deadly threat

WASHINGTON - The military is racing to inspect more than 90,000 U.S.-run facilities across Iraq to reduce a deadly threat troops face far off the battlefield: electrocution or shock while showering or using appliances.

Pfc. Justin Shults shows some of the burn wounds he received after being electrocuted in a shower facility in Iraq, in this photo taken in January in San Antonio, Texas. Shults suffered third-degree burns on 13-percent of his body. He is suing contractor KBR Inc. for faulty wiring of the facility. (Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News via AP) About one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Half of the problems they found have since been fixed but about 65,000 facilities still need to be inspected, which could take the rest of this year. Senior Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill this week for briefings on the findings

Read the whole story by clicking here.

US troops in Iraq victims of faulty wiring from The Guardian (UK)

Shoddy wiring 'everywhere' on Iraq bases, Army inspector says CNN

Editor's note: If it were not for the lawsuit against KBR by the Maseth family, I doubt that these serious, deadly problems would ever be addressed. Unfortunately in the US, it takes a civil lawsuit to make the government meet their responsibilities to keep military personnel safe.

The civil lawsuit has gotten the attention of the media, and sometimes that is the only way that justice is addressed in America.

Braveheart

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