Taking their cues from McChrystal and Nixon, officers in the Ranger Regiment deliberately withheld from Mallak that Pat had been killed by friendly fire, another egregious breach of protocol. Instead, Mallak was told that Pat “was shot by insurgents or Taliban.” According to Mallak, he “immediately had concerns about the case” because “the gunshot wounds to the forehead were atypical in nature, and that the initial story we received didn’t—the medical evidence did not match up with the scenario as described.” Mallak was sufficiently troubled by this discrepancy that he and Caruso declined to
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