Grim Task: Notifying Fallen Soldiers' Families

July 11, 2008 — -- Next to fighting on the battlefield, it just may be the hardest job in the military.

Only certain soldiers qualify for the challenging assignment and many dread the task.

The three military officials -- a casualty affairs officer, a chaplain and a Spanish-speaking officer -- who came to Andy Jimenez's home in Lawrence, Mass., on Thursday to inform him that his son Alex had died are some of the unheralded members of the military who perform this difficult task.

Notifying the families of dead soldiers is a job fraught with emotion that involves the utmost sensitivity in dealing with grief-stricken spouses, parents and siblings.

When the remains of Jimenez and Byron W. Fouty of Waterford, Mich., who were kidnapped by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists more than a year ago, were recently found in Iraq, the three officials made the difficult visit to the Jimenez home.

"Andy had gone to work when the officers arrived and told his niece," says family friend Jim Wareing, who founded the support group New England Caring for Our Military. "But he forgot his cell phone, so he came back home and found out. It was devastating for him, but the officers were very sensitive. It takes a unique quality to be that person, to be nonemotional as much as possible."

At every military base, the task is rotated between different units for a month at a time. Once a casualty report comes in, the commanders of those units select certain officers who are equal to or at a higher rank than the fallen soldier to receive four hours of training, according to Anthony Beville, a recently retired Army captain who worked as a casualty affairs officer at Fort Riley in Kansas.

The process involves two separate jobs -- casualty notification officers, who inform the family and read from a brief script, and casualty affairs officers, who stay with them as long as needed to help them with burial plans, financial assistance and insurance matters, among other tasks.

"But it's never the same person," says Beville. "Psychologically, when that person gives you the bad news, you never want to see him again. So an hour later, a casualty affairs officer shows up to deal with other tasks."