Late notice of Marine's Iraq death upsets dad

[soup]

Military is examining why official word took 3 days

By ERIN JORDAN
REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU
August 31, 2004

The Davenport father whose son was killed last week in Iraq said Marine Corps officials "grossly mishandled" the notification process when they waited three days to tell the family.

"It really upsets me that my son lost his life for his country, and his country didn't let us know for three days," Randy Skinner said.

Marine Pfc. Nick Skinner, 20, was shot in the neck Thursday near Najaf, the Iraqi city where fighting had raged until Friday.

Randy Skinner said he and his ex-wife, Laura Hamann, learned of their son's death when the father of Nick Skinner's best friend called Sunday morning to offer condolences. The man's son, also stationed in Najaf, sent him an e-mail about Nick's death on Saturday, Skinner said.
link to Des Moines Register article

[MaineDem]

1. How infuriating...and incredibly sad

My condolences to the family.

[FightingIrish]

2. There's a pattern here

Alexander Arredondo's death did not show up on icasualties.org until the news of his father torching a Marine van hit the media. The coalition fatalities reported from weeks of intense fighting in Najaf are suspiciously low. I fear that DOD is trying to keep these casualties from dampening the fervor at the RNC. If this is true, it is cruel and sick.

[soup]

4. I hope not.

Play with their lives, then juggle their deaths?

It's gotten to a point that I don't doubt anything anymore, but I sure hope this isn't happening.

Welcome to DU, FightingIrish. Sorry to meet you under such sad circumstances.

[TrogL]

7. They're probably juggling the numbers

They've probably found out that the Murican public will tolerate four deaths per day, so they're shuffling the releases around to keep the number down on each day.

[John Q. Citizen]

5. Not sure but

that could be because they wanted to notify the family first. If the death were posted before the family were notified it would be a repeat of the above situation. The father in the van burning did it at the time of notification.

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

8. That's the right way to do it

So I certainly hope they do it that way. It would be much worse for the family to be notified by way of a website of casualties.

[Karenina]

9. Pattern? PATTERN???

Here's the PATTERN for you... NO RESPECT. THAT, lieber Kinder is the ficken Festmuster of the *cabal that stole the reins of the Amurikkkan gub'mint. NO RESPECT for those who have so well served their intere$t$. NO RESPECT for those who have died, their coffins, or rather "transfer tubes" returned under cover of night. They LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH ABOUT THE NUMBERS. Take THAT to the bank.

NO RESPECT for the Vets of earlier conflicts who sleep on park benches and eat out of dumpsters, NO RESPECT for those maimed in the current conflict who return only to find their homes foreclosed, jobs outsourced and who wait MONTHS to even get a doctor's appointment for ACUTE health care issues only to find their benefits have been CUT,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x790421

NO FUCKING RESPECT for the commendations they received for their service, DENIGRATION is the word of the day...

NO RESPECT. NONE. NADA. ZERO. BASTA. NO RESPECT FOR OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.

[krkaufman]

12. I suspect there will be an effort...

... to keep the casualty count below 1000 before the election. I expect to see increased attacks in Iraq, met by decreasing force.

[WillyT]

3. They Don't Want The '1000 U.S. Soldiers Dead' Story During Convention !!!

My guess. As revolting as the thought is...

:puke:

:shrug:

[kskiska]

6. Didn't President Junior make his condolence call?

Didn't he appear on their doorstep to shed a tear and give them a hug?

[WillyT]

10. Nope... Not Even Once !!!

:puke:

[yellerpup]

11. Heartbreaking.

I cried when I read this. Also have to admit that during the "fierce fighting in Najaf" last week, I wondered why we were hearing of total casualties, but thought it strange that the media didn't report whose casualties they were. Peace, please!