The Pentagon has quietly updated its casualty database to reclassify the deaths of four US service members killed in the Iran war under a new category labeled "Overseas Operations", a move that US military veterans say is a sign of disrespect.
Veterans react with anger
“It’s such a huge disrespect for the families,” said Michael E Smith, a retired US rear admiral and 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 weekend update to the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), the Department of Defense added more than 140 wounded service members and introduced the new category for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7”, splitting the count from the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Four fallen service members affected
The four US troops killed by Iranian forces who now fall under the “Overseas Operations” category are: 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 national organizer of partnerships and engagement at VoteVets. She recalled attending ramp ceremonies in Afghanistan and expressed emotion about Gonzales, who was 19 and from Carrollton, Texas.
“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.”
Legal and political context
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 beginning on 7 July follows that interpretation.
Smith, who completed combat tours in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, compared the administrative change to manipulation of Pentagon casualty data seen in the Vietnam war. “It’s so disrespectful to our service members who gave their lives, and the only reason they died was because Donald Trump decided to do this illegal war,” he said. “Obviously their boss doesn’t want to hear about deaths. OK, well, here’s one way we can make it look like there’s not as many deaths.”
The Pentagon was approached for comment.
Congressional criticism
The reclassification has drawn criticism in Washington. Thomas Massie, a Republican former House member from Kentucky, wrote on X: “Let me explain this absurd ruse: The Pentagon is pretending there have been two Iran wars separated by a brief cease-fire. The reality: By going more than 90 days without congressional authorization,” the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “IS BREAKING THE LAW and must be held accountable”.
US senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a Democrat on the armed services committee, added: “Americans deserve the truth about the human cost of President Trump’s Iran war, and I will not stop fighting until this administration gives our military members and their families the transparency and accountability they deserve.”
