Army to Apologize for Letters

[DoYouEverWonder]

January 5, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action. The 75 represent more than one-third of all Army officers who have died in Iraq since the war began.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the Army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

The Army did not say how or when the mistake was discovered. It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of wounded or dead soldiers.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-army-letters-to-deceased,0,5944732.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Makes you wonder how accurate those KIA numbers are?

[IndianaGreen]

1. Even the dead can't get out of the Army's Endless War

The Pentagon is being run by incompetents.

[uppityperson]

6. Indeed, I am so sad for these families, yet this makes me laugh so hard, sardonically.

[Joe Bacon]

33. Did they send a letter to George Romero, too?

:evilgrin:

[silvermachine]

39. Maybe...

...they sent one to Joe Dante. Remember "Homecoming" on Showtime's Masters of Horror series?

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0548,lim,70455,20.html

[MADem]

2. Mother of fucking pearl....what a disgraceful mistake. Who the hell is vetting this shit???

Did they use Rummy's old autopen with cheery green ink to sign the letters? Or did the Gates autopen take the rap?

Obviously, the database was NOT "thoroughly reviewed" before this cockup, else it would not have happened. You have to wonder who is running decedent affairs over at the Pentagon. This error is simply unacceptable. There are protocols in place that should be checked off, one by one, when a servicemember dies. The protocols apply during war and peacetime, and they are in place so shit like this does not happen.

This is simply more evidence of the declining quality of our forces. It's criminal....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. they're short-handed...

"Here's your rifle, son."

"But SIR, I'm a FILE CLERK!"



:cry:

[MADem]

10. So many of the folks at decedent affairs are civilian, though; so here is what I wonder

You know how there was a litmus test (registered GOP, party loyalist) to work as a contractor in the Green Zone? I'm wondering if they are pushing out a lot of the Democrats (many of them black) who work at the Pentagon in that shop and others (to include the assorted database shops)...

[donheld]

31. they're short-handed...A fantasy

"Here's your rifles, girls."


"But SIR, We're Jenna & Barbara BUSH!"

"Tough shit girls get going."

:rofl::rofl:

[saigon68]

35. LOL

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. I bet they stopped their paychecks

as soon as they died.

[MADem]

11. Darn right--that's the FIRST thing on the checklist! NT

[LanternWaste]

45. I don't know if this is really new or not...

I don't know if this is really new or not.

One of my granmother's 'cherished' possessions was a KIA telegram from the War Dept. dated 1943. It notified her that my grandad had been killed in Sicily.

Only problem was, I went to his real funeral last January.



Granted, there were a LOT more servicemembers in WWII. And these days, I'm sure there's a super-dooper-secret Xcel spreadsheet they keep this stuff on that should minimize errors...

[Erika]

3. They offered more education $ or what

They were sent a few days after Xmas? W is one big screw up.

[Skip Intro]

5. I wonder about it all

who knows how many have really been killed? All we really have are numbers from the same government who lied us into the thing to start with. Why would I believe them?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. All those billions they get...

And they still fuck up the mail. These guys would flunk lunch.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Isn't privatization grand?

it costs at 3x's as much to pay a private contracter for the same job the military use to do for themselves.

[Barrett808]

12. U.S. army says it mistakenly urged dead officers to return to active service

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

The army did not say how or when the mistake was discovered. It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of wounded or dead soldiers.

"But an earlier list was used inadvertently for the December mailings," the army statement said, adding that the army is apologizing to those officers and families affected and "regrets any confusion."

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070105/K010511AU.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. It's just wonderful how they care for those who have departed, isn't it?

Sickening, just sickening.

[lancdem]

14. This is really, really bad

What an embarrassment.

[partylessinOhio]

15. How dare they die and not continue to serve endless tours in Iraq for

their wonderful leader impostor. :sarcasm:


This is such an unkind and unnecessarily crass insult to grieving families. This would never have been tolerated in the America I grew up in. What has happened to that America?

[MeasureTwice]

16. Uh.. That does not compute.

People killed in action (or wounded and sent home) on an 'Earlier list' would either be inactive (if they were wounded or killed before the list was made) or 'Active Duty' if the list was made later.

Someone was careless making the list, you cannot make that mistake with an old list.

[Robbien]

17. Fifty one hundred officers recently left the service?

Sure 275 officers had to leave due to death or health reasons, but that leaves about forty eight hundred officers who volunteered recently to leave the service.

Officers are usually career men. Forty eight hundred recently leaving the service jumps out to me as being very very odd.

[lebkuchen]

18. Will the US Army apologize for redeploying soldiers with PTSD?

An excerpted letter to Stripes -- "Disgusted with some articles"

Also there was “New guidelines let troops with PTSD re-deploy” (article, Dec. 22). I understand that the armed forces are hurting for personnel, but to redeploy a servicemember who is already broken back to war and then try to reintroduce them into society is madness. To redeploy these servicemembers is just flat-out wrong, whether they are in remission or not.

It’s like being in remission from lung cancer and smoking a pack of cigarettes; the flare-up of PTSD is inevitable.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=42574

[dipsydoodle]

19. US Army urges dead to re-enlist

The US Army is to apologise to the families of officers killed or wounded in action who were sent letters urging them to return to active duty.
>
>
It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of dead and wounded soldiers.

"But an earlier list was used inadvertently for the December mailings," it added

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6237607.stm

[VegasWolf]

20. They are not dead. They are undead. An army of the undead lead by a chimpanzee. nt

[LaurenG]

21. ROFL

:spank:

[proust78]

23. "I talk to families who die" --Bush 12/7/06

It's okay, he asked for permission from the dead families first. All of you obviously don't understand the sacrifices needed from dead people to win the War on Terra.

[dipsydoodle]

22. Whoops !

Didn't realise you'd posted it earlier - sorry. :hi:

[VegasWolf]

24. It's clear to me, the dead need to step up and sacrifice a little more for their country. nt

[MGD]

25. My whole NG unit got orders for Iraq one day. It was later determined to be a clerical error too.

The Army is real good at fucking up paperwork.

[wellst0nev0ter]

26. These Shitsleeve Fuckups Can't Run A Lemonade Stand (n/t)

[daleo]

27. No doubt these dead soldiers also vote Republican. n/t

[NobleCynic]

28. ...sigh

It's honest mistake people. If there is to be criticism about the military let it be about something more substantive.

[MADem]

32. No, it is NOT an honest mistake. It is the worst possible mistake.

Did you know that LBJ personally signed every condolence letter? Hundreds a day. He didn't give it to the autopen, he didn't delegate it to the SECDEF. I am familiar with how they run decedent affairs, the checklists that are used when a servicemember dies, and the purging of the databases that accompanies said deaths. This was just a fuckup, plain and simple. A serious fuckup, that caused additional pain to grieving families, where someone responsible for doing basic data entry either was on vacation, sick leave or unsupervised, and either didn't have someone else to pick up the slack or just didn't do the job. What stuns me, too, is that the people preparing and sending out the "Come Back, Little Sheba" letters didn't do an additional double-check to ensure that there weren't any names that didn't belong on the distribution list after they sent the letter through the long and sluggish chop chain--they could have checked this against half a dozen separate databases, not just a single one. They also could have checked the list against the casualty lists, to ensure that they weren't encouraging some legless kid to come back as well.

If you were a parent getting a letter like that from the gubmint addressed to your dead child, I wager you'd think it was a substantive error...

[Paulie]

37. Plus the service number is a unique identifier

So you're not comparing two "John Smiths" on a list, but two uniquely identified people. So there is even LESS of an excuse.

[MADem]

41. Precisely. The Service Number is the SSAN. You can weed out the dead and wounded using that

datapoint alone. You can take the list of people who have been killed or wounded, and match those datapoints against your list of people who have been mustered out to whom you are sending your letters. Any convergence on those lists will be kicked out in a separate listing. Then, some clerk sits their ass down and pulls those letters out. Then, the clerk sends the list over to the clown managing the list of discharged personnel and tells them to get their shit together and delete the names of the dead from the database.

[rocktivity]

43. DING DING DING! MADem, you're our grand prize winner!

This was...(a) serious fuckup that caused additional pain to grieving families, where someone...was on vacation, sick leave or unsupervised, and either didn't have someone else to pick up the slack or just didn't do the job.

If the Pentagon can no longer keep track of dead soliders correctly, what hope do the live ones have? And with all the money Bush has been sending them, why don't they have the manpower they need to keep everything on track?

:mad:
rocknation

[saigon68]

36. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost

etc etc etc

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. If they can vote Republican while dead, they can serve their country as well.

Looks like someone tapped into the voter lists...always check the tombstones...

[superconnected]

30. they just want to kill em again

okay, seriously, this sounds like a sad computer error, where they simply didn't update the computer but mailed out to the list.

[ShortnFiery]

34. It's UNSAT ... shame on the Admin who permitted this error. n/t

[SayWhatYo]

38. oh man, poor families...

I think they forgot...

SELECT FROM...AND not_dead = '1'

[goforit]

40. Hell, Parents should send their coffins to report to duty.

Our military is a joke!

[rocktivity]

42. ..

:banghead:
rocknation

[Zuiderelle]

44. My heart goes out to those families.

It would be heartbreaking to receive a letter like that. Idiots.

[Quantess]

46. How upsetting for the families.

Good thing they sent an apology, at least. Yikes.