Capt. James Shull , 4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery, 1st Armored, Nov. 17, 2003

The death of Cap. James Shull on a Baghdad street Nov. 17, 2003, was an accident of war. His brother told the Seattle Times that James was leading a detail checking whether local community centers needed supplies. One of Shull 's own men tossed his M-16 into the back of a vehicle without putting the rifle on safety. The weapon went off accidentally, and Capt. Shull was fatally wounded in the head. At age 32, he left a wife and three children.

"Can you imagine killing someone like that?" his mother, Sandy Shull , told USA Today recently. The officer was one of nearly a dozen soldiers dead in Iraq from what is officially described as "negligent discharge." Their deaths caused the Army to intensify its training on weapons handling. James Shull was an unusual young man: as a teenager, he was deemed trustworthy enough to drive a borrowed Porsche on prom night.

"He was the hardest worker I've ever seen," said Ray Linford, a neighbor and the owner of the Porsche in question. "I used to tell him to take it easy, he was working so hard."

He graduated from Washington State University with a degree in criminal justice before enlisting in the Army in 1996. He served in Kuwait and Korea, and was most recently based at Fort Riley.

He was a passionate WSU Cougar fan. His wife sent a VCR to Iraq so that he could watch taped Cougar football games.

His last e-mail told family members he had been moved to a scary part of Baghdad, and asked family members to pray for him.

After the details of his death became public, the officer's mother wrote the soldier who did it a letter of forgiveness. "I don't have any animosity," she said, citing her own religious faith. "Of course we wish he had been more careful.