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First Australian soldier dies in Iraq.

Lord Blackadder said:
To be honest I really don't care how it happened, it's a tragedy. Many people deal with death on a daily basis, but for those of us that don't, the impact of death falls heavier.
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Absolutely. Death is my friend and sits constantly on my left shoulder. My only interest is from the pov of an official cover up.

There's a Hindu story where someone has been cursed by Lord Yama and they are told they will die in 7 days. When someone asks him why he is so cheerful, he responds that he now knows for sure he will live for 7 days whereas no one else is guraranteed to live for 7 minutes.
 
Update on this incredibly bizarre story...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18946342-12377,00.html

Apparently the wrong body was flown home.

The story goes on and on about it as if this was the only tragic death that has ever occured. What is quite odd is that even though the whole article is about how wronged his wife is, there is for the counterpart to the wrong body. It is mentioned that it may be the body of an unidentified soldier. But there seems to be so much bs in this story that who knows.

There is also a very cryptic statement by Mr Blackman (pte Kovco's cousin)

he said "the family was also angry that the public had been told Pte Kovco had shot himself accidentally."

"The things in the paper about him accidentally shooting himself, we all knew in our family that he did not do that," Mr Blackman said. ...

Now hang on a minute if they don't think it was an accident what are they implying. No one seems to be suggesting suicide.
 
dogbone said:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18946342-12377,00.html

Apparently the wrong body was flown home.

The story goes on and on about it as if this was the only tragic death that has ever occured.
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Well, you see, here in Aus it is the only tragic death in Iraq that really affects us all. Thousands of American lives have been lost over there and yes they are all regrettable but this is our first- it's a very, very big deal.

What you're seeing is a series of mistakes, blunders and general stuff-ups that have blighted what should have been a quiet and respectful return of a soldier serving in Iraq.

It was not a suicide, you guys are the only ones suggesting it. It was just a big awful mistake and I would appreciate if suicide wasn't thrown about with reckless abandon until it becomes unequivocally proven to be the case, which I very much doubt.
 
I find it despicable that the Australian Government got a contractor to bring the body home. Cheaper than the Australian military to do it. The contractor left him at an airport somewhere. He deserves better than this. Loathsome.
 
dogbone said:
Chundles...

What do you make of this cryptic quote from the dead soldier's uncle?

"The things in the paper about him accidentally shooting himself, we all knew in our family that he did not do that,"
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The speculation around this is proving interesting. Along with the hoo ha of the mix up, there's been even more speculation as to whether it was suicide or even something else. I really don't know what to think. I just feel really sorry for the family.
 
Chundles said:
It was not a suicide, you guys are the only ones suggesting it. It was just a big awful mistake and I would appreciate if suicide wasn't thrown about with reckless abandon until it becomes unequivocally proven to be the case, which I very much doubt.
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I am still quite skeptical of the suicide theory myself, although the manner of death is less important than the fact that someone has lost their life.

Right now it is more important for people to be respectful of the fact that a mother has lost a son, a wife a husband...

A question for the Australian MR members: has this first casualty changed the mood on the street at all?
 
Lord Blackadder said:
... although the manner of death is less important than the fact that someone has lost their life.
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This is only true for the family.

Right now it is more important for people to be respectful of the fact that a mother has lost a son, a wife a husband...

There is no disrespect towards the family, I doubt that they are macrumors regulars. For them it is personal for everyone else it is a current news story.

A question for the Australian MR members: has this first casualty changed the mood on the street at all?

Well I cannot speak for the 'mood on the street' but speaking for myself it has not changed anything for two main reasons.

1. As it was not a combat death it really has nothing at all to do with Iraq, it's just an accident and an ordinary accident to a soldier in Iraq is no more special than a contractor at your house falling off a ladder and dying. If that had happened would the issue be one of occupational health and safety or would it be an issue of whether contractors should be going to private residences.

2. These are soldiers going into a war situation. Loss of life is expected. It is only the media that beats it up. Witness the first reporting of each and every UK or US death at the beginning of the conflict as against now.

That a soldier has died cannot possibly have anything at all to do with whether it was right to become involved in the conflict or not.

EDIT: I wonder how many Australian soldiers have died in training in Australia during the three years of the conflict in Iraq?
 
the plot thickens

It's getting a bit surreal now. I suppose we'll have to wait for the official inquiry.


After initially saying Private Kovco had accidentally shot himself while cleaning his Browning pistol, Dr Nelson said yesterday: "He wasn't, in fact, cleaning his weapon." It now appeared the gun discharged while Private Kovco, 25, was "fiddling about" with other equipment.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18953495-601,00.html
 
Indeed, the plot does thicken. There is obviously a lot more to it that was perhaps covered up due to the proximity to ANZAC day. I'd really like to know what happened.
 
The bs is piling up...

The weapon has now been established as a Browning 9mm pistol.

It is now a murder investigation. FFS

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18965173-601,00.html

meanwhile...the wrong body that was sent to the melbourne coroner's office cannot be sent back until it has been formally identified...

EDIT: The army has now decided that he wasn't cleaning his gun when he was shot but he was in fact sending an email, it's an easy mistake to make. What I want to know is...was the computer loaded. A 'souce' at the Australian defence force says he had his loaded browning sitting on his lap while sending an email (as you do) when the computer fell off the table and the pistol shot him in the head.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/kovco-emailing-when-gun-fired/2006/04/28/1146198348969.html

The next installment tomorrow will tell us he was in fact having a Jodrell when his sock exploded.
 
Very suspicious...

The question now is - why the flummery?

Dropping a Hi-Power could set it off, but this is one new explanation too many.

I recall l the first article implying that he died in the presence of witnesses...the changing explanations suggest to me that at this point nobody is sure what happened. A very bizzare situation indeed.
 
Warning you might need a peg on your nose before reading further...

Latest news:...

•He was shot in the right side of his head. Not from close range.

•Despite military police insistence that the body not be moved until investigators arrived, this was overruled by the Australian commander in Iraq.

•Body was sent back to melbourne but bullet has gone missing.

•John Howard "accepts full responsibily for his death". (I knew the midget politician was in on it).

•er..that's about it.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kovco-autopsy-gun-fired-from-afar/2006/05/01/1146335671414.html
 
I'm glad they got the body situation taken care of.

We still need lots more facts, but it still looks like an accident, only now it seems pretty obvious that somebody else shot him...still I don't understand all the skullduggery - it looks like members of his own unit are impeding the investigation.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
We still need lots more facts, but it still looks like an accident, only now it seems pretty obvious that somebody else shot him...
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Yeah, it's sort of looking like someone was mucking around with a aloaded weapon. Which is still a bit strange. I have a feeling we'll never know what happened exactly because the person who shot him will not reveal the full extent of the stupidity that must have gone on. But as you say, the unnecessary obfuscation by the army is odd.
 
Update

The mystery of what caused the gun to fire has deepened. Some soldiers are saying that three men were skylarking when Private Kovco was shot by accident. One source said regiment members at Holsworthy Barracks last week experimented to see if a Browning pistol could discharge accidentally.

"They tried 100 different ways including banging it, dropping it and throwing it, but the gun would not fire unless the trigger was pulled."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/05/06/1146335969059.html

As it seems pretty well impossible to fire accidentally then it would appear to be a game of russian roulette either knowingly or thinking the gun was not loaded.

Ballistic forensics would have established by now whether the gun was fired by the deceased or not. But this information does not seem to be forthcoming so it certainly does appear to be a cover up even though the widow says it isn't. How can it not be a cover up. No one is being told if the gun was fired by the kovco or not.
 
Russian roulette is not possible with an automatic pistol like a Browning Hi-Power...the weapon will fire until it is empty. Putting one round in the magazine and cocking the weapon will load it...

Most automatic pistol designs, especially those used by armed forces, are very unlikey to fire when dropped, assuming the weapon is in good condition. Obviously they will have to take a very close look at the pistol. If it is in proper working order....somebody was doing something they should not have been.
 
No one seems to care what happened any more...

Has the whole fracking® world gone mad? Latest installment is that someone left a copy of the report into how the wrong body got shipped, in an airport computer.

Now this seems like a very small story indeed. Like so what. Now remember we have had no further info on how this soldier came to be shot in the head with his own gun.

Yet the family of the dead man is apoplectic over the the non important report of the body mix up being lost and totally indifferent to the report on his death. And further the family are now acting like media whores by 'threatening' the ADF if they don't get their mixed up body report by tomorrow.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kovco-familys-ultimatum-to-adf/2006/05/18/1147545451685.html
 
Update: It just gets curiouser and curiouser

Apparently we now have an explanation to Pte Kovco's death. It was due to a joke.

"THIS is so gay I would rather be dead." That is the "joke" that Private Jake Kovco's roommate says is the best possible explanation for how the private was mysteriously shot. http://www.theage.com.au/news/natio...ry-in-gun-death/2006/06/20/1150701552932.html
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I'm not quite sure what this means other than his roommate shot him due to being overly sensitive about his sexual orientation. Reading further along the article the explanation seems to suggest that Kovco was trying to illustrate the difficult to understand concept of 'death'.

Now I'm not a forensic scientist but I would have thought that gunpower residue would be left on the hand of the person firing the gun but there has been no mention of this so far.
 
You're right, it just keeps getting stranger.

There was also a thing in the paper today about a passage in his diary describing him dreaming of being shot in the head. He also wrote that he was not suicidal.
 
max_altitude said:
You're right, it just keeps getting stranger.

There was also a thing in the paper today about a passage in his diary describing him dreaming of being shot in the head. He also wrote that he was not suicidal.
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And more...a group of his friends were apparently concerned that the wrong body would be sent back to Australia so they endeavoured to ensure that this would not happen. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/mates-tried-to-stop-body-bungle/2006/06/21/1150845227886.html
 
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