Sad story of soldier shocked by suspect shower..it speaks to sickening situation in Iraq

As promised, I had a post that I couldn’t get to yesterday, so I am doing it now.  My apology for the delay. 

I’m not sure if you caught this yesterday, but there was a U.S. Army Green Beret who died January 2, 2008.  Although we have allowed the media to create a general feeling of numbness when it comes to the deaths of our military personnel in this so-called war against terror, the circumstances surrounding the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth really grabbed my attention. 

Sgt. Maseth was electrocuted when he turned the shower on in Iraq.  Based on the reports, the shower wasn’t properly grounded and the jolt of electricity went through his body when he turned the water on.  You know it couldn’t have been a pretty sight. 

Water + electricity + a human = nothing good. 

There was no gunfire.  Maseth didn’t fall on a grenade.  He didn’t get ambushed by the enemy.  He died in the shower.  The shower, folks.  Can you imagine how that just doesn’t resonate?  The shower?  What would it be like if when you turned the shower on and that was the last thing you would have done?  You can’t imagine it.  Neither can I.

However, there was one day that I could.  When I got the “pleasure” to make my trip to Baghdad, we were fortunate enough to set up cantonement on a cesspool.  The best that we could do was to pour several tons of gravel on the ground to keep our vehicles and equipment from sinking.  Nevermind that everyone else who was deployed to the site had setup on solid ground.  Our brainless leader decided he didn’t want to be a part of the “group”.  Yeah, that group.  The one where the resources for security had been allocated.  No, never that.  We had to “go it alone”.  Reminds me of Bush.

In order to give some weight to my post, I had to go to my archives and grab some photos that I took when I was in Iraq.  The conditions over there aren’t ideal under any circumstance.  It should be noted that in our case, we built our shower tent.  We brought in the potable water.  The water bladder was our property.  Our guys did ground the electrical components of the shower….or at least I hope they did.  Nonetheless, it wasn’t pretty.

If I’m not mistaken, this pic was a look at the drainage pit from where the sinks went into.  This was the floor.  You had to keep flip flops on your feet when you were anywhere in this tent.  It was a dirty mess. 

This next shot is a picture from one corner of the shower tent.  On the left was the tarp that hid the showers.  If I remember correctly, there might have been 6 shower heads (more like sprinkler heads) that poured down on your head.  I think we had the tarps up as dividers.  On the far right is the sinks that we brushed teeth at and shaved.  Nothing you’ll find at Home Depot. 

This next shot is a view of the shower tent from outside.  The truck to the left of it was the truck that went back and forth to get the potable water to eventually pour into the bladder that was behind the tent.  Just slightly out of the right corner (near) was the area where we were told a couple of months into the deployment that an explosive device had worked its way up to the surface.  We (I) had been walking over those grounds every day as we went back from our sleeping tent to the shower tent. 

I recall coming out of the shower one afternoon and I saw our Combat Support Director and our services NCO standing out there talking.  They were keeping us away from the area.  They were getting it roped off to keep anyone from agitating the explosive ordinance.  I later asked the NCO what the deal was.  He said that when they noticed (randomly) that an explosive (which shifted to the top) had never been taken off the site before the gravel was poured, they had to keep us away from it.  Well, I was pissed because I had been walking right over it every day.  It’s a blessing that I didn’t lose a limb or my life, for that matter. 

I’m going to stop there with the show and tell.  There are so many more that I have in my file that I could write a book on…so I will spare you all of that. 

Back to Maseth.  The Army (no surprise) was not forthright with his family concerning the circumstances surrounding his death.  That very thing is what led me to get out.  During that time, the nation was sucking Pat Tillman’s heroism, which later turned out to be another fratricide case.  In war, the military covers up more dirt than they want to admit.  The last thing I wanted to happen to me was to die of something and then have my family get lied to concerning what happened.  People have to live with the questions forever if they’re not truthfully answered.  The government can be a very corrupt group of people. 

Just think if you’re Maseth’s family.  The US contractor company who was being paid to clear these areas for safety had noted that the electrical situation where Maseth was stationed was an accident waiting to happen.  Unfortunately, they weren’t permitted to make repairs.  Their contract called for them making repairs to things that would later break and not things currently out of order.  That’s crazy.  Who’s writing these contracts? 

To the company’s credit, they did notify the Army of the conditions and the Army did like they always do….nothing.  To further compound the ignorance, the Army didn’t move to correct the electrical situation until the day after Maseth died.  The deal is that everyone sees the problems, but leadership has no balls to make changes until something bad happens and everyone starts running to protect their careers.  Forget the fact that your son or daughter just got served up as a sacrificial lamb. 

Sgt Maseth wasn’t the first to be electrocuted in Iraq.  There were 12 others since the war began.  That’s 12 too many.  This is 200freaking8.  Certain situations shouldn’t be named among the military.  For as long as we’ve been over there, there should be no problems like electrical issues. 

My heart goes out to Sgt Maseth’s family and to every other family who has lost a loved one due to ________.  (You can fill in your own blank.)

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth’s story.

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Tags: Iraq war, Ryan Maseth, Staff Sgt.