Pte Kovco II

More from the Kovco Inquiry

Jake Kovco’s mates have a preminition about the body mix up

An unnamed soldier, codenamed Soldier 14, told the inquiry into Pte Kovco’s death and bungled repatriation that a group of fellow soldiers had tried to prevent any mix-up involving his body.

“We were looking after Jake and we wanted to make sure the job was done,” Soldier 14 told the inquiry in Sydney, via a video link from Baghdad. “Our job was to make sure he got home and I guess we wanted to make sure that it was him that went home and that’s why we, as a group, had talked about that. “One member then put forward that statement to Soldier 2, to make sure that it was him (Pte Kovco) because stranger things have happened.”

In all my days I have never heard of a body mixup other than on this one occassion. I wonder what historical precedence these guys used to express the concern that there might be a problem. It sounds like invention after the fact to me but then maybe it’s a known in-theatre problem. It’s hard to be sure from my desk in Brisbane. In another article Soldier 17, a 23-year-old private figures it was an accident

….yesterday told the inquiry he believed Pte Kovco could have been shot in the head while joking around with his two roommates.

And this………

Soldier 14 told the Sydney inquiry that Pte Kovco walked several metres in front of him as they were leaving their posts and then held a door closed on him at a weapons checkpoint so he could not get through. At the time, Soldier 14 said he decided he would clear his own rifle because he did not have Pte Kovco to follow the so-called “buddy system” of checking each other’s weapons when their duty finished. Soldier 14 said Pte Kovco had been carrying a rifle plus his 9mm Browning pistol on duty that day.

……raises the question; what were the NCO’s and Officers doing while all this horseplay was going on. The so called “Buddy System” aside, where soldiers check that each others weapons are cleared, surely the Corporal Section Commander has a responsibility to at least ensure this happens. The Inquiry now enters a phase of reviewing classified evidence in camera and fair enough too. It’s bad enough we have to wash our dirty linen in public without journalists and unqualified commentators debating operational security matters involving our troops in Iraq.