Surviving combat, dying in mystery

This was supposed to be the safe one for Tad Hervas.

Working from the relative safety of a secure building on a heavily guarded base in Iraq after previous deployments that had put him in the center of battle, Hervas nevertheless became one of a growing number of Minnesota soldiers to die of what the Army calls "non-combat-related injuries" or on protected bases.

"He came back from so many things. This time we didn't have a clue that we should be worried, but as it turned out ..." said Hervas' father, Ned, his voice trailing off.

Adding to the pain that followed the surprise visit of Army officials to the family home in Coon Rapids last week, the cause of death so far remains a mystery, as the Army remains close-lipped about its investigation.

In a previous deployment to Iraq, Hervas, a major in the Minnesota National Guard, was stationed at an Iraqi oil refinery south of Baghdad. His unit kicked in a door and found a member of Saddam Hussein's secret police. During a sectarian skirmish in one of the neighborhoods he patrolled, a mosque was bombed that left the bodies of women and children strewn on the street.

This time, Hervas, who earned a Bronze Star during his first deployment with the Guard, was supposed to remain largely on base in the safer region of southern Iraq, conducting intelligence work from a secure building. It was a rewarding assignment and far less dangerous as things go in a war zone.

But since December 2007, four of the last nine Minnesota fatalities in Iraq have not died in combat. That included the death of Staff Sgt. Todd Selge, of Burnsville. Like Hervas, Selge saw considerable action in a previous deployment. He had survived being wounded in a gunfight and was given a Purple Heart, only to die during his second deployment when his eight-wheeled armored combat vehicle dropped 60 feet from a bridge.

While U.S. and coalition fatalities are on pace to be the lowest in the seven years of the Iraqi conflict, six of the more than 100 U.S. military personnel who have died in Iraq in 2009 have come from Minnesota, four of those from the Minnesota National Guard.

All four of those have died "inside the wire" on a base considered relatively safe. The Minnesotans make up the fifth highest number of Iraq war fatalities in the country in 2009, behind only California with 12, Ohio with nine, Texas with eight, and North Carolina with seven.

As the U.S. ratchets down its combat presence in Iraq, it appears the number of non-combat deaths is increasing. In 2008 there were 87 non-hostile U.S. fatalities in Iraq, or 27.7 percent of all U.S. fatalities. In 2009 there have been 56 non-hostile fatalities to date, or 43.8 percent of all fatalities this year. After a surge of non-combat deaths in 2007, the U.S. military sent a team of Army safety experts to Iraq to investigate whether the increase coincided with the fatigue of extended 15-month deployments required by U.S. troops at the time.

Eric Ostermeier, a University of Minnesota research associate and the author of the Smart Politics blog, has been researching Iraq war fatalities and said the increased numbers of non-combat fatalities likely reflect the consequences of refocusing combat attention from Iraq to Afghanistan.

The numbers provide few answers to the Hervas family as they await the results of an autopsy being conducted at Dover Air Force Base and finalize plans for his funeral this weekend.

Ned Hervas said his son was upbeat about his current assignment returning to Iraq, where he analyzed military intelligence. About 1,000 members of the Minnesota National Guard are serving a one-year deployment at a base in southern Iraq, where they are in charge of roughly 16,000 multinational forces as well as Iraqi security forces.

Tad Hervas, who had served in the U.S. Air Force and joined the National Guard after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, had just returned to Iraq after two weeks at home. His father said he was in good spirits after going fly-fishing with friends and remodeling his Coon Rapids home. After returning to Iraq, his last e-mail reported on a difficult three-day trip back, but ended simply: "Everything looks good, Talk to you soon. Love you, Dad."

"He saw a lot of really bad things before," Ned Hervas said. "It's hard for those soldiers to see that and to come home and come back to civilian life. But he was very excited about what he was doing. Now he was in the intelligence section, he had a high security clearance. He talked daily to the CIA. He really enjoyed what he was doing."

Tad Hervas will be laid to rest in his dress blues and his older brother is accompanying the casket home from Dover this week.

"You always think you know he's coming back," Ned Hervas said. "Tad told his little nephew when he left, 'I will be home.'"