WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.
"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."
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and... hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget.
And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that... these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it is judgment that defeats us.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:01 am Posts: 19477 Location: Brooklyn NY
Justin Bailey wrote:
Quote:
I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and... hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget.
And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that... these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it is judgment that defeats us.
makes perfect sense when you think about it
_________________
LittleWing sometime in July 2007 wrote:
Unfortunately, it's so elementary, and the big time investors behind the drive in the stock market aren't so stupid. This isn't the false economy of 2000.
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 11:46 pm Posts: 4970 Location: Portland, OR Gender: Male
LeninFlux wrote:
porchball wrote:
wow Names and numbers...thats all soldiers are.
To the computers that generated this situation...yes. This was an unintended fuck up...let's not make more of it than that.
I base my opinion on 4 years of active duty service. This story only solidifies how I have felt since about my second year in the army.
I know it wasn't intentional...but most fuck ups aren't, but they're still fuck ups all the same. When a soldier dies I would hope that someone would remember to take they're name out of a database. They don't because they don't care enough. Thats exactly what I expect...after all these soldiers did fight and die in a war that nobody seems to be able to justify. Our government is sending people to die half way around the world for reasons they can't explain and then sending recruitment letters to their homes for their widows to read..so I don't think I'm too far off base when I say our soldiers are looked at as just names and numbers.
It's not that nobody cares. It's that there's so much fucking inane beauracracy that their names were problably taken off of 100 databases, and left on 200 more.
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:19 am Posts: 6221 Location: Tasmania / Australia Gender: Male
porchball wrote:
LeninFlux wrote:
porchball wrote:
wow Names and numbers...thats all soldiers are.
To the computers that generated this situation...yes. This was an unintended fuck up...let's not make more of it than that.
I base my opinion on 4 years of active duty service. This story only solidifies how I have felt since about my second year in the army.
I know it wasn't intentional...but most fuck ups aren't, but they're still fuck ups all the same. When a soldier dies I would hope that someone would remember to take they're name out of a database. They don't because they don't care enough. Thats exactly what I expect...after all these soldiers did fight and die in a war that nobody seems to be able to justify. Our government is sending people to die half way around the world for reasons they can't explain and then sending recruitment letters to their homes for their widows to read..so I don't think I'm too far off base when I say our soldiers are looked at as just names and numbers.
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Names and numbers...thats all soldiers are.
