JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Perhaps the most important information the Pentagon releases to the public is on American casualties in conflict, but amid a recent increase in deaths and injuries from Iranian attacks, the Pentagon has changed how it counts that data. NPR's Quil Lawrence joins us now. He's in Reno, Nevada, at the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Hi there.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Hi.
SUMMERS: So, Quil...
LAWRENCE: Sorry if it's a little noisy.
SUMMERS: Yeah. No, I hear that. You were watching all of this last week as there were these escalating attacks between the U.S. and Iran. So if you could just bring us up to date on the confusion then and where things are now.
LAWRENCE: Well, yeah. So a week ago Friday, it was announced that there were four troops killed in action, Iranian rocket and drone attacks on bases in Jordan and in northern Iraq. And as we were reporting those out, we would check the official numbers on the Pentagon's website, but the numbers of those killed in action for the war in Iran were kind of switching back and forth before our eyes on the Pentagon's website. It would - one day it said 14, and then they added the four new KIA, and it went up to 18, but then it was knocked back down to 14 again.
And as we had already reported, you know, NPR had a military source who wasn't authorized to speak on the record who told us that the - this Pentagon has been slow to report wounded in action. We can now confirm that there have been at least 200 wounded so far this month. And in the past few days, the Pentagon has started listing casualties in a different place. Now, instead of labeling it in the Iran war, they're calling it overseas operations. They're not even specifically identified as having died in the war in Iran.
SUMMERS: Right. And there at the VFW Convention, are you hearing anything about this from veterans you've been speaking with?
LAWRENCE: I mean, looking at these numbers on the Pentagon website is pretty far in the weeds. People here are mostly talking about making sure that veterans get full care and disability benefits that they're due when they serve at war. But, you know, casualties are a very serious issue to these people. No one here's more than one degree separated from a casualty. I spoke with a Marine colonel who served 30 years, Nancy Springer, and she - this is what she wanted to say.
NANCY SPRINGER: We're making veterans as we speak. We're in combat in the Middle East. We're making combat-wounded veterans right now.
LAWRENCE: So, you know, I would say that vets here, they are generally pretty skeptical about how the government talks about wars and wounded and about their treatment when they come home as a baseline. You know, the VFW was founded by vets of the Spanish-American War in 1899 when they thought back then that the government was kind of doing them dirty over the benefits they were owed. So mistrust is pretty standard.
SUMMERS: What have you heard from the Pentagon about all of this?
LAWRENCE: This morning we called and they had no comment. Later sent a statement saying that since Operation Epic Fury has concluded - that meaning the Iran war is concluded - the department classifies casualties as overseas operations in the central command area of responsibility. So it looks to be now we can count over 600 wounded, but it's confusing the way they're listing it, and that's sort of part of the problem.
SUMMERS: Yeah. And, I mean, this is not the first time that the Pentagon and this administration has made it challenging to get information, right?
LAWRENCE: Right. I mean, there hasn't been a press briefing since May. The Pentagon kicked out the professional press corps and replaced them with a hand-picked selection of reporters. And it's not just a problem for reporters. You know, you could tell last week when the secretary of defense testified in the Senate that both Democrats and Republicans were complaining that they can't get straight answers about the cost of the war, about damage to bases overseas, and therefore, how effective U.S. defenses against drones and missiles are against depletion of munitions.
So what we're seeing is that not only is the press having trouble getting information, but the American people. If they can't get it through the press and they can't get these facts through their elected representatives, it's hard for them to sort of form - get informed opinions about what's happening in the war.
SUMMERS: NPR's Quil Lawrence. Thank you.
LAWRENCE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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