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Bad news bearers - and how they do it

Casualty notification whys and wherefores

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After Kevin Butler was injured falling into power lines, his wife saw three lapels in the doorway: There was a casualty assistance officer, rear detachment commander, and chaplain.

But her eyes never left the lapel of the chaplain as she was informed of the fact that her husband had been involved in an accident - eight hours after it had occurred, four hours before his death.

Following protocol of 1991, the information was delivered in the amount of time that it took to understand the circumstances surrounding the accident. The rear detachment was apprised of the circumstances; a casualty assistance officer was selected, and the assembled group was sent to notify me, the soon-to-be widow.

I recognize now that I could have been notified more quickly and that the casualty assistance officer shouldn't have handed me his pamphlet outlining how to notify me of the process. But the officer, like me, was a victim of lack of experience.

Regrettably, over the course of the Iraq War, more than 3,700 deaths mean that casualty assistance officers now have more experience.  But along with more experienced casualty notification officers, or CNOs, come more experienced scam artists.

Fortunately, an improved protocol exists to help refine the system of casualty notification.

While the next of kin in today's casualties aren't always notified in person with a trio of lapel insignia in a doorway, an official phone call bearing bad news will always start with an identification of name, rank, unit, and home station, per Col. David Smith, command chaplain for the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, quoted in a Stars and Stripes article by Terri Barnes.

In a culture where the last four or Social Security number can easily slip off the tongue, the CNO will never ask for it. Rather, the CNO will confirm that he or she is speaking to the correct person via name, telephone number, and 45-day address.

In the same article, Smith said death notification will never happen over the phone. Instead, a team of at least two soldiers "trained in notification procedures and grief and bereavement" will render the notification

This means that although the team will have paperwork and information at their disposal they won't hand it over directly to the family member as happened to me in 1991.

And while one of those individuals may be a chaplain, this may not always be the case, corroborated in an unclassified statement by Brig. Gen. Reuben D. Jones, adjutant general of the United States of the Army in a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel Casualty Notification Hearing on June 27, 2007.

In his statement, Jones outlined the process of notification. All family members listed by the soldier on DD Form 93, Record of Emergency Data will be notified in a professional manner as directed by the Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Center in Alexandria, VA - a Casualty Assistance Center, or CAC.

While the goal is to notify the primary next of kin within four hours of the CAC receiving the report, occasionally this timeline can be delayed.

"The proper care for our service members, living and deceased, and their families is our uncompromising goal. It is the least we, as an Army and a nation at war, can do," said Jones in his closing statement.

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