Marines Open Up on ‘Friendly Fire’ Deaths

The Marine Corps told commanders Wednesday that family members of so-called friendly fire casualties are “rightfully entitled” to “all details” of fatal accidents, even when the facts “may embarrass the Marine Corps or reflect negatively on your command.”

The new policy guidance, issued as a letter from Gen. Carl E. Mundy Jr. to Marine generals and commanding officers, urged them to display “increased sensitivity” toward “family members who experience great anxiety over wanting to learn all details of the casualty as soon as they are available.”

But Mundy, the Marine commandant, stopped short of establishing a deadline for disclosure.

Noting “oftentimes unavoidable delays in uncovering after-the-fact information,” Mundy emphasized that he did not intend to “compromise the process of formal investigation” required when Marines die accidentally at the hands of fellow troops.

But Carol Bentzlin of San Juan Capistrano, whose Marine husband was killed by friendly fire in the Persian Gulf War on Jan. 29, 1991, was skeptical.

“It’s big of them,” she said. “Let’s see if they’ll follow through.”

Bentzlin said families “should be able to get the information we need. It took them eight months to tell me, and I had to fight tooth and nail to get the information.”

Bentzlin eventually was told that her husband and seven others were mistakenly struck by an allied missile on Jan. 29. The tragedy was blamed on a missile malfunction.

Mundy billed his letter as a response to news articles about the handling of friendly fire casualties in the Gulf War. Many other families have complained that the Army and Marine Corps withheld the truth for months about how their relatives died.

Mundy asked his staff to draft a new policy in November after the Washington Post reported that field commanders were aware of all 14 Marine friendly fire fatalities by the end of March but did not notify families formally until August.

Marine investigations are not considered closed until they have been reviewed by five layers of command.

One such investigation from the Gulf War, regarding the friendly fire death of Marine Sgt. Aaron A. Pack, is still not complete. Although Mundy asked subordinates to “expedite the process,” senior officers acknowledged that the new guidance will still leave families waiting weeks or months for details of deaths of their Marines.

“Given the choice between accuracy and speed, we are going to come down on the side of accuracy,” Brig. Gen. Thomas V. Draude, chief spokesman of the Marine Corps, said Wednesday.