Reader comments
Army sorry for hurtful letters to survivors

So this is a form letter and the only thing personal about it is if they manage to remember to insert the name? I am sorry but that is a pathetic offering for a family whose child has given his/her life for country. We are really skewed in this country; no respect for what is really important.

As sad as this sort of error is, I guess military folks are used to this sort of snafu. Families don't need anyone to tell them their loved ones were heroes. The good thing is they caught it and they're fixing it. Keeping up a war in this PC times is very challenging especially with all the budget cuts. There's much worse mistakes to make than this...

This can happen anytime anywhere. It was obviously an accident. They said they were sorry. The families are still getting their benefits. Looks like people just trying to find something to complain about. Some people are not happy unless they are miserable.

Why would all those people get so upset with a clerical error, the only thing different/wrong was the name was incorrect, as has been stated, it was a clerical error. Get over it.
The clerical error won't change the fact that the person is still dead and �guess what�, they died doing what they wanted to do "be in the military" - where they had volunteered to be.
When you become a "solider", cop, fireman, electrician, truck-drive, farm-worker & etc - you know that there is always a chance that you could be killed ... family members get over it.
Remember them with love and respect � don�t sweat the small stuff, your loved one would probably laugh at you.

I don't think this qualifies as small stuff. Certainly it's something where you should move on, but an apology was certainly in line. To refer to a soldier or a soldier's family as "John Doe" forgets the memory of who they were and what they fought for.