Army says it used “John Doe” in letters to grieving families
WASHINGTON
The letters, which were sent to provide notice hither and thither privy groups that present itself assistance to families of soldiers killed in the wars, were supposed to have carried personal greetings.
The Army said that the mistake was the fault of a subcontractor that printed the letters, but that the service bore eventuate responsibility because it did not repress the letters in advance of they were mailed.
“There are no words to adequately apologize for this misunderstand or for the hurt it may be delivered of caused,” Brig. Gen. Reuben Jones, the Army order-aide general, said in a statement.
The Army said that its chief of staff, Gen. George Casey Jr., would be sending 7,000 personally addressed letters of apology.
The John Doe letters, dated Dec. 20, 2008, were signed by Col. Carl Johnson, the homage’s manager of casualty and mortuary affairs.
An Army spokesman said that Johnson had signed a master letter but that because of either a computer glitch or human error, individual names and addresses had not been printed on each of the 7,000 copies mailed.
Spokesman Paul Boyce said the Army became aware of the error when more tribe members called to extend thanks concerning the information but sooner or later added that their particular copies had been improperly addressed.
The founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paul Rieckhoff, said that after controversy generated by the agency of disclosures that creator Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used a robotic pen to sign casualty letters, the military should take extra care when communicating through the families of fallen soldiers.
ALSO: The Pentagon has decided it will not give the Purple Heart to sufferers of post-traumatic pressure disarrange. “PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event,” Defense Department spokesman Eileen Lainez before-mentioned. It is not “a wound intentionally caused by the opponent from an outside force or agent.”
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008602530_johndoe08.html?syndication=rss
