CHAIRMAN, MILITARY PERSONNEL SUBCOMMITTEE,
OPENING STATEMENT
HEARING ON DEATHS OF MILITARY PERSONNEL WHICH MAY HAVE RESULTED FROM SELF-INFLICTED CAUSES
SEPTEMBER 12,1996
The Subcommittee on Military personnel will come to order.
We meet today on the heart-wrenching issue of American soldiers whose lives were lost through tragic circumstances. Since 1982, three-thousand-eighty-four (3,084) soldiers died as the result of what military investigators say were "self-inflicted causes." Some families, about 50 in number, of those who died disagree with these conclusions and how they were reached.
I want to begin by speaking directly to these families. Regardless of the cause of death, you have suffered a searing loss. Your pain is harder to bear because the death was a shocking surprise and because tough, unanswered questions surround both the death and its subsequent investigation. I pray that you will find some closure and the healing process can begin.
Some of you believe that in your pursuit of truth that you have not been fairly treated, especially in light of your great sacrifice. I hope you will take from this hearing that this subcommittee, and indeed the nation, recognize your loved ones as fallen comrades who volunteered to serve their country.
All of us should agree that the deceased soldiers and surviving families, the military services, and the nation deserve a thorough, professional investigation of these tragic deaths. Further, we should all agree that families who have lost loved ones deserve fair and sensitive treatment and the best answers to their questions about how their loved ones died.
I regret to say this has not always happened. I have read all of the testimony that family members gave to the subcommittee as of last Monday. I have also read the testimony of the military investigators, and a report from the Defense Department’s Inspector General.
Are there problems in some of these cases? In my view, yes. Do military investigators sometimes appear insensitive to grieving families? Regrettably, yes. What else explains a family who received three different versions of their son’s death?
Is there a rush to judgment in some investigations? Yes. In one case, investigators failed to take fingerprints from the weapon later determined to be the cause of death. In another case, a family reports that investigators said their son, a Marine, was shot with two different weapons. Yet the family, and their investigative consultant, says the county sheriff’s department didn’t find the second wound to the victim’s stomach until after their initial determination the victim died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
Are military investigators sometimes arrogant? Yes. Personal property of dead soldiers has been withheld, misplaced, stolen or destroyed. In one case, a serviceman had unprocessed film in his camera, but that film was destroyed and never given to the family understandably curious about the last pictures their son had taken. In another case, investigators lost the pen that investigators claimed was used to write a suicide note.
Do military investigators sometimes reach conclusions that I think are not supported by facts? In my view, as a layman, yes.
But there is another side to this issue, and it is a perspective that deserves to be heard. Those who investigate these deaths have a difficult, thankless, grisly task. Just as there is no perfect law, or perfect hearing, or perfect news story, there is no perfect crime investigation. But the truth is that the vase majority of these cases are investigated thoroughly and professionally and grieving families are treated sensitively. These investigators deserve recognition for a job well done. A written statement from a former New York City police officer who, even though he is the expert consultant for a family critical of the military investigation into the death of their son, recognizes that, and I quote "in some cases, the officers who conducted the investigations did so in an exemplary manner."
I want to talk about what this hearing is, and what it is not. This is an oversight hearing of the implementation of a law Congress passed in 1993. That law directed the Secretary of Defense who tasked the Inspector General to review the adequacy of the procedures used by the military to investigate these deaths. That law also gave family members who lost loved ones the opportunity to request the Inspector General to reinvestigate their loved ones’ cause of death and subsequent investigation. More than 50 families did so.
We will hear testimony from five of these families. We will also hear from officials of the military investigative services responsible for these investigations, and from the Inspector General who reviewed their procedures and is now investigating individual cases.
This hearing is an opportunity to create a record to hear both sides of a tough issue, to review the procedures of the military investigative services. to determine if they have the resources necessary to do their jobs and if additional corrective legislative steps are necessary. We will hear from families who have lost loved ones, and determine how procedures can be improved so that other families will be spared unnecessary pain.
Now let me explain what this hearing is not. This hearing is not a coroner’s inquest. It is not a trial. This hearing will not reach a conclusion about the cause of death in these cases, and whether each and every investigation reached the right conclusion. As a senator who respects the sacrifice of those soldiers and their families who serve our country, I wish that this subcommittee could resolve forever all the hard questions families have. But the truth is we do not have the expertise to reach those conclusions. That’s why Congress authorized the Defense Department’s Investigator General to reinvestigate these cases.
But what we can do is establish a hearing record, make sure we hear all views, learn the lessons that experience teaches and determine what changes are needed in the future. If the practices, procedures and training of our military investigators are not exemplary, we must ensure the shortcomings are corrected. If the family notification, casualty assistance and public affairs procedures are not adequate or are not sensitive to the needs of grieving families, we must insure that these policies and procedures are corrected.
For those of you who will not be testifying today in person you are invited to submit written testimony. We have already received 29 such statements. The record will be kept open for one week and these statements will be made a part of the record of the hearing. some of the statements from family members included their home addresses and phone numbers. Since the record of this hearing will be a public document we will redact the addresses and phone numbers to protect the families. No other editing or changes will be made to the statements submitted by a family member.