Concerns are growing among former military officers and Democratic lawmakers that the Pentagon is obscuring how many American troops are dying and being injured in the war with Iran.
In recent weeks, the Pentagon quietly removed the latest deaths and injuries in the Iran war from its internal casualty tracking system and reclassified them under a broader category.
One Democrat is moving to hold the Trump administration accountable — and force Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to reverse course.
“It’s an ongoing manipulation by the Trump administration to hide the true cost of the war in Iran to the American people,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told MS NOW. “They’re already hiding the dollar amounts, but for them to now hide the casualty figures from the American people is a disservice to the American people, but also it affects our troops and their benefits.”
To address this, Duckworth wants the Senate to pass legislation to ensure the American public knows how many American troops have died and suffered injuries since President Donald Trump and Israel started launching attacks against Iran in February.
The Honoring the Sacrifice of Troops in War Act, to be introduced by Duckworth in the Senate on Thursday, would seek to “ensure the transparency and integrity of casualty accounting and benefits and awards for military and civilian personnel during military operations,” according to text of the legislation reviewed by MS NOW.
The bill would also restore all casualty records for Iran-related operations from Feb. 28 to Operation Epic Fury.
The Pentagon has previously responded to allegations that casualties were being intentionally concealed as “baseless and malicious.”
Even though the legislation is unlikely to get a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate, it is part of Duckworth’s effort to bring attention to what Duckworth believes is a politically motivated move that leaves troops in limbo about whether they will receive full benefits from supporting the war against Iran.
For Duckworth — a veteran and Purple Heart recipient who lost both of her legs when her helicopter was downed in the Iraq war — the issue is personal.
“Secretary Hegseth cannot erase the true cost of this war, and he cannot erase the sacrifices of our heroes by changing the paperwork,” Duckworth said. “I’m gonna hold them accountable, and I’m gonna try to see if I can’t find some of my [Republican] colleagues who served in uniform themselves who might stand with me on this.”
Early in the war, U.S. Central Command regularly provided casualty figures. But in recent weeks, the Pentagon has repeatedly revised its communication and classification of U.S. service members injured and killed during the conflict with Iran.
For example, when the Pentagon announced the identities of 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, both killed in an Iranian missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, the July 20 press release described them as “two active-duty Soldiers who were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.”
Despite initially claiming they died under Operation Inherent Resolve — the military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria that began in 2014 — the Pentagon later added Feehan and Gonzales to the list of personnel killed under Operation Epic Fury in its Defense Casualty Analysis System, among the four deaths and dozens of injuries newly added.
Three days later, their names — as well as the latest four deaths and dozens of injuries — were removed from the DCAS list entirely. At the time, Pentagon spokesperson Joel Valdez blamed the deletions on “temporary data disruptions” and “site anomalies.”
Yet a few days later, the names of all four U.S. service members killed and more than 200 wounded since July 7 appeared on the DCAS site under a new category: “Overseas Operations.”
But the revisions from the Pentagon did not stop there.
Since then, the Pentagon has changed the online version of its initial press release that identified Feehan and Gonzales. It now describes them as “two active-duty Soldiers who were supporting overseas operations in Jordan.”
Even though President Donald Trump has continued to order airstrikes against Iran in recent weeks, the Pentagon says Operation Epic Fury, the name given to the wave of attacks that started Feb. 28, ended on May 5.
“Since Operation Epic Fury has concluded, the Department classifies casualties as overseas operations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility,” a Pentagon official told MS NOW, noting DCAS is “the system of record and not the driver for benefits.”
The Trump administration’s move is unprecedented, multiple former defense officials told MS NOW.
“I’ve never heard of manipulating the operation’s name or the operation’s category in this way,” a former defense official, granted anonymity for fear of retribution, told MS NOW. “Normally, these operations once declared are wide scoping and they have staying power.”
“It seems to me based on all my years of experience this is only to muddy the waters — to Congress, to the American public — to be able to change the perception of how this looks,” the official said. “It’s really unfortunate.”
As of Thursday, 270 troops have been wounded in “Overseas Operations,” bringing the total injured in the Iran conflict to 687 when combined with Operation Epic Fury’s casualties.
Duckworth is concerned about those troops — and their families — earning the proper level of benefits.
“For the purposes of the VA, for example, when you become a veteran, you get a different pension based on whether or not you are a combat-connected injury, or whether your injury was just in operational service,” Duckworth said, adding it is also “a slap in the face to our Gold Star families.”
“We actually have folks who have been killed, and we have one who is still missing in action, that the Gold Star families now don’t have real answers from the Trump administration as to what has happened to their loved ones,” she said.
Cmdr. Gabriel Edwards, a Navy pilot believed to be deceased after going missing in an emergency helicopter landing on July 1, is still listed under Operation Epic Fury.
VoteVets, a political action committee supporting Democratic veterans running for office, acknowledged that while there may not be practical implications for benefits, the disrespect to the combat service of the wounded, families of the fallen and deployed U.S. service members is impactful enough.
“It’s just basic respect for the sacrifices they make, including the ultimate sacrifice,” retired Maj. General Paul Eaton, senior adviser to VoteVets, told MS NOW in a statement.
“Our service members deserve the truth and accountability at the very least,” Duckworth said. “They don’t deserve a commander-in-chief who plays games with their sacrifices.”
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