Battle of the Bilge

Defying Conventional Wisdom

The Army has released a statement this morning that they are, once again, changing the standard headgear for Soldiers. Following their decision last year to change from greens to blues in their dress uniforms, today saw an announcement that there is a change to headgear as well. In an homage to the days of horse cavalry, the black beret will be replaced by a dark blue Stetson:

No, not really

This move challenges public (and rival military branches) perceptions that the Army has no sense of humor.

A New Era

From the announcement:

“We figure the Stetson will be popular with the troops,” said Sgt. Maj. Bob S. Stone, Army Uniform Board headgear task force president. “It’s been a while since we have changed the headgear, so it’s time. Plus a Stetson is functional and down right American.”

But reminiscent of the controversial switch from the garrison cap to the black beret, the Army faces opposition from one community deeply opposed to losing its special identity with the Stetson – the Armor branch.

“Why in the heck are they doing to us what they did to the snake-eaters?” asked one officer familiar with the board’s deliberations. “If you ain’t Cav, you ain’t ought to be wearing a Cav hat. That just ain’t right.”

But the sheer functionality of the wide-brimmed American-classic Stetson won over the majority of the board.

“You can keep the sun out of your eyes, the hat won’t melt to your head on a sunny day, and female Soldiers can tuck long hair under a Stetson a lot easier than with the current beret,” says Stone. “Plus we’ve already gone back to blue jackets for the service dress uniform. The Stetson actually completes the look.”

A vibrant discussion of the move is taking place on Facebook, with many commentators outraged at the change and the rest fully cognizant of what day it is.

The last line of the press release should have been enough of a clue, but who reads that far in an article?

The Army’s official adoption date of the Stetson will be April Fool’s Day, 2012.

Look forward to seeing this in email form without the last sentence in a few weeks. MOAA will be lobbying the Navy to follow this lead and return to their Cocked Hat roots.

Obviously kidding.

Discussion

Posts are not held for moderation so your comment will appear immediately, but may be modified if it violates our Community Standards.

Non Beneficial Mutation

During the life-cycle of a viral email, there are inevitably changes of various elements, both small and large. Usually these changes take place over long periods of time, spanning administrations and political changes. We gave an example of a current long period alteration recently with the Cindy Williams article being repackaged after 10 years to target President Obama. It is rare that changes are made after only a short time, as logic would imply that there would be some memory of the email that was just released and obvious differences would be clear. This is one of those cases. As we detailed in ‘Warning to Veterans Hoax’, there is a viral email posing as an official Department of Veterans Affairs Warning regarding a group called Veterans Affairs Services. While the original email pointed service members towards the VA Office of the General Counsel, the new mutation points people to the National Guard Bureau. The message also states that the warning originated from NGB this time, in place of the previous attribution of the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For the original language, see the link above to the article on the Warning to Veterans Hoax. Here is the new language that was inserted:

This scam continues to capture personal info and potential identity theft even though prior warnings have been sent throughout DoD. The following is an advisory sent out by the National Guard Bureau (NGB) in reference to a group called “Veterans Affairs Services”

VAS may be gaining access to military personnel through their close resemblance to the VA name and seal. NGB Legal Counsel has requested that the NGB Provost Marshal Office coordinate with DoD to inform military installations, particularly mobilization sites, of this group and their lack of affiliation or endorsement by VA to provide any services.

After receiving a number of inquiries to their office, a representative from the NGB was tasked by the NGB Chief Counsel to investigate how they were included in the warning and they reached out to us due to the previous hoax warning. After researching the change in the email, we found that the new verbiage first appeared on a public website on February 22nd, in two locations, here and here.

From there, the message was shared on Facebook and currently appears in this form on numerous blogs and message boards. What has made the problem more exacerbating is the fact that many people have received the warning from trusted sources, like the workplace or fellow service men.

Clearly, NGB did not put out this message, and just as the DVA did not put out the original, the primary source for the message is unclear. While the warning for military members both active and retired to be extremely careful when dealing with any financial institutions regarding disability pay ‘settlements’ or retired pay plans is important, the focus of both variations of this warning has been VAS. We’re growing increasingly suspicious that this is more of a financial trick by a competitor of VAS, which raises more concern than a falsely attributed warning.

We’ll keep an eye out for more changes or details, but please help out by spreading the word that the National Guard Bureau did not put out this warning, and they are not handling inquiries regarding VAS.

Discussion

Posts are not held for moderation so your comment will appear immediately, but may be modified if it violates our Community Standards.

Introduction

A new version of one of the most widely circulated military related emails in history has been given new life. As detailed in full here, the story about a service member’s response to an article written by Cindy Williams (not the actress) in which she decries 4.8% pay raise in 2000 has become part of the internet lore. But the newest version has one additional line that is sure to enrage a whole new group of people. And it is completely untrue.

The New Email Language

The original email can be found at the link above. The new iteration contains the following introduction:

If you get this more than once, feel honored that you know more than one person who supports our military and appreciates what they do. If you don’t forward it, you don’t deserve their sacrifice.
CINDY WILLIAMS was appointed by Obama as an Assistant Director for NATIONAL SECURITY in the Congressional Budget Office…..

Reality

The section in bold in the quotation is simply not true. There is no truth to President Obama appointing her, but she did serve with the CBO as an AD in the National Security Division. She served in that position from 1994 to 1997. Additionally, the Executive branch has no oversight for the staffing of the CBO. That responsibility lies with Congress.

Cindy Williams is currently continuing her role as the Principal Research Scientist of the Security Studies Program at MIT. Her bio can be found here.

This isn’t the only email chain to be given new life recently with a simple alteration of the text. The almost-as-legendary ‘Jane Fonda Honored as Woman of the Century’ email, which dealt with Time magazine’s possibility of listing the scourge of Vietnam era veterans as one of the most influential women of the 20th century, is making the rounds again with a ‘Now Obama is going to honor her’ snippet added in, with references to Time taken out.

Fear of benefit and pay cuts for the military and their families is strong right now, which naturally lends itself to these types of resurgences. But changing the target of the hostility makes them no truer than when they were first issued. The Cindy Williams case shows how long a particularly emotion invoking article can stay in circulation. It also shows that the further down the road you get, the more distortions are likely to pop up.

Discussion

Posts are not held for moderation so your comment will appear immediately, but may be modified if it violates our Community Standards.

Spreading the Word

The article we ran back in December about the ‘Warning to Vets‘ email hoax has been picked up in part, with some further information given to the reporter, by Army.mil here. A short sampling of the article, including additional insight from VFW:

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas — An old e-mail lurking in the electronic cloud is making rounds again in a renewed attempt at phishing for veterans’ personal information.

“While the e-mail is not what it purports to be, the message lends itself to a much bigger issue of the exploitation of veterans using survivor benefits as a hook by financial services companies to get their business,” said Matthew Lofiego, Military Officers Association of America’s (MOAA) deputy director of the Member Service Center.

“There are so many organizations out there targeting veterans, offering them money and becoming the beneficiary of their benefits,” Lofiego said.

“Servicemembers and veterans need to be careful in this day in age,” said Jerry Manar, deputy director for Veterans of Foreign Wars, a non-profit service organization of combat veterans in the U.S.

“Many scams seem to offer something for very little money or for free. Once you’re involved with them they do a bait and switch and begin charging money for services,” Manar said, stressing residents of retirement and nursing homes are often targeted and particularly vulnerable.

“It is a growing problem, and one that MOAA is paying close attention to, especially the tactics being used,” Lofiego said.

Recently forwarded throughout the Army community and titled “Warning To Veterans,” the current version of the e-mail advises against using the services of an organization called Veterans Affairs Services and appears to come from Kevin Secor, Veterans Service Organizations liaison, Office of the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

MOAA contacted the VA and VSO Liaison Kevin Secor to confirm. Lofiego said Secor stated that he never sent the message.

Introduction.

News from last year has turned viral, with only a slight modification to the original story making it in to the email. A U.S. Marine reservist was stabbed in the back while collecting toys at a Best Buy in Augusta, GA on Black Friday. Cpl. Phillip Duggan and three other Marines were outside the store collecting toys for Toys For Tots when a man came running outside holding a knife. The man had attempted to put a laptop under his jacket, but was seen on the store’s surveillance camera Duggan was wounded as he and his fellow Marines brought the man to the ground.

The Email

November 27, 2010
Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A U.S. Marine reservist collecting toys for children was stabbed when he helped stop a suspected shoplifter in eastern Georgia.

Best Buy sales manager Orvin Smith told The Augusta Chronicle that man was seen on surveillance cameras Friday putting a laptop under his jacket at the Augusta store.

When confronted, the man became irate, knocked down an employee, pulled a knife and ran toward the door. Outside were four Marines collecting toys for the service branch’s “Toys For Tots” program.

Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of them, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, in the back. The cut did not appear to be severe.

The suspect was transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken leg, possible broken ribs, assorted lacerations and bruises he obtained when he fell trying to run after stabbing the Marine.

The suspect, whose name was not released, was held until police arrived. The Richmond County Sheriff’s office said it is investigating.

Reality

The reality is this event did occur. Cpl. Phillip Duggan, a Marine reservist, was stabbed on Black Friday at a Best Buy in Augusta, GA. Duggan, 24, was at the Best Buy helping collect Toys for Tots when he was stabbed in the back by Tracey Attaway, 39, after Dugan had clothes lined Attaway as he attempted to flee the Best Buy. Attaway was spotted on surveillance video placing a laptop under his jacket. When approached and asked by store staff to return the item, Attaway became irate and stormed out of the store. Duggan, along with several other Marines and store staff members, grabbed Attaway and held him until authorities arrived. Duggan was taken to the hospital and received stitches before being released. He was described by his high school drama coach, Leah Soderberg, as having a good sense of humor and a very good code of ethics.

Three weeks after the incident, Duggan, his fellow Marines and the Best Buy staff members that helped stop Attaway were given gift cards from the store in appreciation for their actions. Attaway was denied bail as he had recently been released from prison after he was convicted of gun and obstruction charges on Sept. 8, 2010. He had begun serving a four-year probation sentence before stabbing Duggan.

The incident does, however, give us a chance to hail the Marine’s Toys for Tots program and recommend support for it. You can donate and get more information by clicking here.

Additional Information

A Look at the Hero
From the Augusta Chronicle:

A former teacher wasn’t surprised to hear that Duggan stepped in to help. Duggan was the kind of student who would stay late to build scenery for a high school drama production, said Leah Soderberg, his former drama coach at Cross Creek.
He was a fine actor, dancer and acrobat who played the lead in The Diviners and has returned since graduation to mentor kids, she said. “He’s got a good sense of humor and a very good code of ethics,” Soderberg said.

A long history of criminal activity

Again From the Augusta Chronicle:

Tracey Antonio Attaway’s criminal history, which was read in court by Assistant District Attorney Natalie Paine, seemed to influence Senior Judge Bernard J. Mulherin Sr., who said Attaway was a threat to flee the area and to commit more crimes while out on bond. “He has a history of criminal activity that is rather lengthy,” Mulherin said. He was convicted of gun and obstruction charges in Burke County on Sept. 8. He had been in jail since May 29 and was given credit for time served by Judge Sheryl Jolly. She sentenced him to four years, eight months of probation plus 100 hours of community service.

Further Reading

Snopes Article
CBS Article
FoxNews Article

Discussion

Posts are not held for moderation so your comment will appear immediately, but may be modified if it violates our Community Standards.