Maj. Sorffly Davius, a New York Army National Guard officer, died from a medical emergency on 6 March while deployed to Camp Buehring in Kuwait. His death was classified as non-hostile.
The military announced Davius’ death when it happened. Yet he was added to the Pentagon’s official casualty list only months later, in an update late on Friday, 9 October.
That update raised the Pentagon’s official death toll from the war with Iran to 21, two more service members than it had previously acknowledged. The figures in the Defense Casualty Analysis System, the Pentagon’s record of military deaths, were its first update since 29 September.
Davius was one of the two additions. The other was an enlisted Navy woman aged 25-30 who died in September, according to the database. Her death was also classified as non-hostile, and its cause is listed as pending.
The revision follows months of uncertainty over which deaths the Pentagon included in its Iran war tally. After fighting resumed in July, the Pentagon created separate casualty categories for Operation Epic Fury and for “overseas operations”; the categories cover casualties since July. The fighting paused in August, while September brought continued casualties, including 95 troops wounded in action. Of those wounded in September, 38 were sailors and Marines.
In September, The Washington Post reported that four more troops had died than the official count showed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disputed that report in a statement on social media. A defence official told Task & Purpose that additional deaths had occurred in the Middle East, though they “were not directly related to the war with Iran”.
The updated tally now includes Davius, whose death occurred at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, and the Navy sailor whose cause of death remains pending. It does not show how many of the 21 deaths were classified as hostile or non-hostile.
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