Trump administration’s revision of Iran war casualties ‘huge disrespect’, say veterans

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth salute the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt Angel S Rampersad in Dover, Delaware. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth salute the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt Angel S Rampersad in Dover, Delaware. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Trump administration’s revision of Iran war casualties ‘huge disrespect’, say veterans Defense department updated database of casualties to list four service members deceased in ‘Overseas Operations’ A controversial move by the Pentagon to reclassify casualties in the Iran war is being taken by US military veterans as a sign of disrespect for the dead. “It’s such a huge disrespect for the families,” said Michael E Smith, a retired US rear admiral and the founder of National Security Leaders for America. “To claim that they weren’t killed as a result of the war – oh, it was just overseas operations – is just ludicrous.” In a quiet weekend update to the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), a military database for displaying casualties, the US Department of Defense – renamed the Department of War under Donald Trump – added more than 140 wounded service members. They also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7” which splits the count from the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran . The latest US troops killed in Trump’s Iran war are remembered for lives of service Read more Four US service members killed in action by Iranian forces fall under that category: 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, Pvt Isabella Gonzales, Sgt Angel S. Rampersad and Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton. “I definitely think that this isn’t an issue just about numbers, but also about accountability,” said Tristeza Ordex, a US Marine Corps veteran and the national organizer of partnerships and engagement at VoteVets. “When I was deployed to Afghanistan, I remember attending ramp ceremonies,” she said, referring to an airfield memorial honoring a fallen service member before their casket is loaded onto an aircraft and returned home. Gonzales, 19, was from Carrollton, Texas, near Ordex’ home near Dallas. Gonzales was not yet born when Ordex first enlisted in 2004. “Thinking about it now makes me emotional, to think about how we have people coming home now … 19 years old,” she said. “I think about people like her that were excluded. Not only are Latinos being excluded from so much more and being targeted: we have this person that paid the ultimate sacrifice for this country who isn’t even being recognized as a casualty of this war, so it feels like erasure.” The War Powers Act of 1973 requires the president to end military operations within 60 days unless Congress authorizes an extension , which it has not. The Trump administration has argued that the April ceasefire with Iran paused the clock on 1 May for the conflict’s initial period. The separate casualty count beginni