Army fails to tell family soldier is alive

[ECH1969]

WASHINGTON - The Army said Saturday it knew for more than a year after 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard's death in Iraq in May 2004 that he was not killed in action, as it initially reported. The family was not told the truth until Friday.

Ballard's mother, Karen Meredith, of Mountain View, Calif., has become a public critic of the war. Last month she was in Crawford, Texas, at a memorial erected by Veterans for Peace as part of the protest that began Aug. 6 outside President Bush's ranch by grieving mother and 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 on 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.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/12612209.htm

[wakeme2008]

1. The Title is FU the soldier is died

just not the way they told the family.

[movonne]

2. Another regrettable mistake !!!

[Moderator]

3. ECH1969

please edit your title to reflect actual headline

Soldier not killed in action; Kin not told

[Moderator]

4. Locking

You may re-post this article with the published title:

"Soldier not killed in action; Kin not told"