Hidden war toll: Nearly 800 contractors killed

Friday, Feb. 16, 2007. Patino, 58, was driving a truck for a Halliburton subsidiary in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Iraq when he was killed in a friendly-fire incident at an Australian checkpoint.

If the contractor deaths were added to the Pentagon's count of U.S. military casualties, the number of war dead would climb about 25 percent, from about 3,000 as of the end of 2006 to nearly 3,800.

If the contractors injured badly enough to be off the job for at least four days were added to the nearly 14,000 U.S. troops requiring medical air transport because of injuries, the injury total would rise by about the same percentage.

If you would like to track the contractors lost in Iraq