WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday asked the State Department and Pentagon to investigate the electrocution of a 25-year-old private security contractor while showering in his dormitory in Baghdad.
Reid said he wants to know whether Adam Hermanson's death resulted from faulty electrical work. Hermanson, who died Sept. 1, grew up in San Diego and Las Vegas. Reid is a Nevada senator.
Electrical wiring has been an ongoing problem in Iraq that the military has been trying to fix with widespread inspections and repairs. At least three troops have been electrocuted while showering since the start of the Iraq war, and others have been electrocuted elsewhere.
Reid made the request Monday in letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Hermanson served three tours in Iraq with the Air Force. He'd recently left the military and was an employee of the Herndon, Va.-based private contractor Triple Canopy at the time of his death.
A request for comment was referred to the military in Baghdad, where the request was not immediately returned. Darby Holladay, a State Department spokesman, said Reid's letter had not yet been received.