Relatives 'devastated' to learn of soldiers' deaths on TV

[spanone]

Shame on the Pentagon, what does a phone call cost???

~snip~ (CNN) -- The uncle of a U.S. soldier slain by insurgents in Iraq said he and his family were "devastated" to find out about his nephew's death from media reports rather than the Army.

"We didn't hear it from any soldier or anybody from the government. We heard it from the TV like everybody else," Mario Vasquez told CNN on Wednesday about how he learned that his sister's son, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, had died.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/21/soldiers.families/index.html

[MichiganVote]

1. The Bush Bureacracy at work---again

[TheDebbieDee]

17. Sorry, but this gentleman should be mad at his sister........

for not picking up the phone, dialing his number and telling him that her son had been killed..........

ETA: I forgot to look before I leaped! I didn't read the referenced article but I assumed that the soldier's mother was at least notified of the soldier's death before anybody.....then it occurred to me that I could be wrong, as I often am.

[JuniperLea]

20. Was she told?

I read this story and heard it on the local news... no mention of a call to anyone in the family... where's your source saying the soldier's mother was called?

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. White House Whore Tony Snow would say "It's just a number"

[helderheid]

3. didn't he know? This administration thinks his nephew is just a number.

[Beelzebud]

4. Don't worry. Rumsfeld's auto-pen is writing a letter of condolence.

It would be funny if it weren't so fucking pathetically true...

[yardwork]

5. This mis-administration is totally inept and cruel in every way.

[Hubert Flottz]

6. I saw the interview it was really sad.

This "War on Terror" for the GOP's political brownie points, is something that America should NEVER forgive and forget.

[Sailor for Warner]

7. The military only notifies the next of kin

If you recall the military was not acknowledging the deaths until the next of kin could be notified. The press was the ones with the info, blame them for being insensetive shits in this situation. Its not the Military's job to send a CACO rep to Uncle Mario's door. They go to moms door, whoever they had on their "page 2" form as their NOK.

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. Here we are two days later and Bush has said "0" about this atrocity

But then, Bush wasn't related or didn't know any of the involved parties.

[Sailor for Warner]

14. Oh no I agree

I am just saying that it is not the Pentagon's fault that they did not call this poor soldiers uncle to notify him of his nephews death. Uncle Mario was not the NOK.

[TheCowsCameHome]

15. I wouldn't expect them to notify anyone other than the proper person/s.

You would think given the horrendous circumstances that Bush might have squeaked out a few minutes from his grueling fund raising/feel-good bullshit tour to comment on these two deaths.

And that is not to imply that ther other 2,506 weren't terrible also.

[JuniperLea]

21. Was the mother informed?

I've seen this story all over the place and there is no mention of his mother being told. Do you have other information?

[MADem]

16. The poster above is correct

And they only notify the PRIMARY next of kin, as designated by the servicemember. So, if you are married, and your PNOK is your spouse, your spouse gets the notification, and it is assumed that the spouse will notify secondary NOKs, like parents, aunts, uncles, and so forth. This is the case even if your SGLI (servicemember's group life insurance) is going to several relatives or friends.

It's the way the system has always been. The servicemember is the one who makes the determination about who should be notified.

Edit/spelling

[Golden Raisin]

8. Where are all the yowling "patriots"

who are always screaming, "Support our troops!", "Honor our troops!" Guess support and honor doesn't extend past actual death or to grieving, surviving families.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. I hope this poor fellow gets lots of coverage.

Maybe the real story coming from a close relative will wake up the stubborn BushKissers as to how cruel and insensitive this administration really is.

[Sailor for Warner]

10. Where does it stop

Should the Pentagon have called his ex GF from high school too? Seriously, this is the media's fault this time round.

[Minnesota Libra]

12. OMFG, you mean to tell me that Idiot, Rove, Cheney, Rummy, nor anyone.....

....else could get off their effing lazy fat stupid asses and go tell the :patriot:family of this soldier:patriot: that their loved one had been killed in a most brutal way.:cry: What the holy f... do we pay these gd b....... for anyway???

Hey, I just thought of something, if we contact the Iraqi insurgents do you think they might be willing :think: :dilemma: :bounce: :thumbsup: Hey Idiot Boy, Rummy, Cheney, Rove boy, where you guys going to be in the weeks to come?? You want to do lunch?? bounce: :bounce:

[Sailor for Warner]

13. The mother was notified by the CACO

This is in accordance with long held miltiary policy.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2003/d20030228pag.pdf

and the recent changes also hold true in this situation. The press shot their load early on this one, it is their fault.

[JuniperLea]

22. Was she notified?

I've looked all over and have found nothing saying the soldier's mother was informed either.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. They're fucking with the families too.

They told the families not to give up hope until they confirm it by DNA in a couple of days.

[dogday]

19. The Republicans needed to make it public

as soon as possible to go with their cut n run slogan... They have used these boy's deaths as a talking point...

[JuniperLea]

23. Hey, dogday...

I'm looking all over to find out if the mother was informed. Have you seen anything?


I figured you'd be all over this one...

[dogday]

24. The family found out throught the press

they were informed after they found out.... Someone wanted this info leaked...

[JuniperLea]

25. That's what I'm seeing too

No mention anywhere about the mother or anyone else being notified until after the story hit the news.

Of course the news agency will be scape-goated, even though the responsibility is ultimately the US.

I'm getting more than sick of what these bastards are doing in our good name... or, what used to be our good name in any case.

[Jed Dilligan]

26. To clear up any confusion,

The uncle speaks for the whole family, including NOK.

snip

O'BRIEN: Our condolences go to your entire family. Such terrible news, such sad news. You know, we first started getting word from Iraqi press actually, which seemed to kind of leak the information. And then the military sort of had to come around and confirm what was already being reported by the Iraqi officials. How did the family first learn that, in fact, Kristian, who everyone knew was kidnapped, had actually been killed?

VASQUEZ: Well, we actually heard it on the media. We didn't hear it from any soldier or anybody from the government. We heard it from the TV like everybody else. I was very devastated when we learned it a different way than they had told us that we were going to know about it.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/21/cnna.vasquez/