[Vision2020] Soldier Alive, Despite Phone Call to Family

[Tom Hansen]

This is ABSOLUTELY lame!  Somebody's got to be held to account.

VERIFY!  VERIFY!  VERIFY!

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Courtesy of the Associated Press.

Military officials say they're investigating why a western New York man
was told his son had been killed in Afghanistan when in fact the soldier
was alive and well. (Sept. 15)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPSKm8SiEng

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Courtesy of the Army Times . . .

Soldier alive, despite phone call to family

WASHINGTON — Raymond Jasper was on a camping trip in New York state with
his wife, Robin, when he got a phone call about his son, a soldier in
Afghanistan.

“I saw the look on his face, and I asked him, ‘Is Jesse hurt? How bad is
he hurt?’ ” Robin Jasper recalled Monday. “He said, ‘He’s dead.’

“He dropped the phone, and we both hit the floor sobbing.”

It wasn’t true.

Their son, Staff Sgt. Jesse Jasper, 26, had not been killed in
Afghanistan. The Army says the incorrect news was delivered to the Niagara
Falls, N.Y., family by mistake by a member of an informal military support
group. And it has the Jaspers looking for some answers.

“No family should have to go through this,” Robin Jasper said.

Lt. Col. George Wright, an Army spokesman, said the Army does not notify
families of soldiers’ deaths by phone. An officer and a chaplain meet with
families in person to break the news, he said.

Wright said the error came from a support group outside the Pentagon that
helps families cope with a death.

“It was not malicious,” Wright said.

The Pentagon said it is taking the incident seriously and was looking
further into the matter, said WGRZ-TV in Buffalo.

But the Jaspers cannot forget the four hours they thought their son was gone.

During the phone call, the Jaspers were given a phone number to get more
details about their son’s death. But they decided to wait. Family and
friends started to gather at their home and food was prepared for those
mourning his death. Someone posted the news on Facebook.

It was then they got a call from Jesse’s girlfriend, who saw the notice on
Facebook. She said she had just talked to Jesse. He was alive. Raymond
Jasper called the number he had for the military. His wife thought he was
in denial when he told her, “He’s alive!”

The Jaspers eventually talked to their son.

The man who died whose name was confused with Jasper’s was Sgt. Tyler
Juden, 23, of Winfield, Kan. He died Saturday in Turan, Afghanistan, when
insurgents attacked the unit with grenades and small-arms fire, according
to the Pentagon. Juden was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, based
at Fort Bragg, N.C.

“Our hearts go out to his family,” Robin Jasper said of Juden. “We’re
praying for them.”

“It was the worst four hours of my life,” Robin Jasper said.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown