Casey signs 7,000 letters of apology to families of fallen

[unhappycamper]

Casey signs 7,000 letters of apology to families of fallen
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 15, 2009

ARLINGTON, Va. — Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has personally signed letters apologizing to about 7,000 families of fallen soldiers who received letters last month that all began "Dear John Doe."

"There’s some things that you just have to personalize, and that was too personal," Casey said Wednesday.

Printed by a contractor, the letters were intended to inform families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan about private organizations that can help them, but the names of the families did not transfer when the contractor combined the letters with a list of families’ addresses.

The Army announced the mistake and issued an apology on Jan. 6.

Calling the incident a "terrible mistake," Casey said the Army has since suspended all mass mailings and e-mails pending a quality control check.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60011



uhc comment: Outsourcing gone wild....

[notadmblnd]

1. 7,000 families last month?

I thought the death toll was around 4200?

[unhappycamper]

2. icasualties.org is down, but

Iraq and Afghanistan account for around 5,000 deaths. Add in suicides and all the other mysterious deaths around the world and 7,000 seems reasonable.

[notadmblnd]

3. so every letter that a family has received since the start of this mess. started with John Doe?

That's not a mistake, it just shows blatant disrespect for our service people by this administration.