zimv20
Oct 13, 2003, 10:36 AM
link (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-10-12-iraq-letters-usat_x.htm)
Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.
But many of them are the same form letter.
A Gannett News Service search found identical letters in 11 newspapers. They were signed by different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock." The five-paragraph letter relates soldiers' efforts to re-establish police and fire departments and build water and sewer plants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit is based.
It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized sending it to soldiers' hometown papers. If they are part of an organized effort to sway public opinion, it could raise ethical questions for the military, whose officers are trained to refrain from partisan politics.
Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it. One said he didn't even sign it.
A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the Beckley, W.Va., newspaper. "When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said, 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said of the phone conversation he had with his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson.
Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a letter that ran in the Snohomish, Wash., paper, said his platoon sergeant had distributed the letter and asked soldiers for the names of hometown newspapers. Soldiers were asked to sign the letter if they agreed with it, Shelton said. "Everything it said is dead accurate. We've done a really good job," he said.
Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.
But many of them are the same form letter.
A Gannett News Service search found identical letters in 11 newspapers. They were signed by different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock." The five-paragraph letter relates soldiers' efforts to re-establish police and fire departments and build water and sewer plants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit is based.
It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized sending it to soldiers' hometown papers. If they are part of an organized effort to sway public opinion, it could raise ethical questions for the military, whose officers are trained to refrain from partisan politics.
Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it. One said he didn't even sign it.
A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the Beckley, W.Va., newspaper. "When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said, 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said of the phone conversation he had with his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson.
Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a letter that ran in the Snohomish, Wash., paper, said his platoon sergeant had distributed the letter and asked soldiers for the names of hometown newspapers. Soldiers were asked to sign the letter if they agreed with it, Shelton said. "Everything it said is dead accurate. We've done a really good job," he said.
