Two Alabama newspapers ran stories about a soldier who said she joined the Army after her daughter was injured in Iraq. After the stories ran, however, the Army revealed that he story wasn’t true. By then, the Associated press had already picked up one of the stories, sending it over the wire. The Hunstville Times, a paper than ran the story on the front page, has a story about the revelation:
…An Army investigation found that Pfc. Cindra Smith’s
daughter has never been in the military, said Andy Roake of
Redstone public affairs. He said the Army contacted the
family and did a record search using the daughter’s
Social Security number. “Nobody by that name was
found,” Roake said.
Roake also said Smith’s daughter was contacted and she
confirmed that she has not been in the Army.
He said a public affairs representative at the bomb school
on Redstone where Smith was in training originally learned
of Smith’s story about her daughter from talking with
other soldiers. “It was picked up as a good human
interest story the way it was originally told - about her
being influenced by her daughter’s injury to go into
disarming explosive devices,” Roake said.
“It turns out that the key piece was
fabricated.”
Roake said Thursday that Smith is on “hold status”
while the Army determines whether to let her continue bomb
school training or assign her elsewhere. Unless Smith is
court-martialed, any disciplinary action would be
“between the commander and the soldier”
because of privacy laws, Roake said. No decision has been
made on charges, Roake said Thursday.
Smith first told her story to the Redstone Rocket in an
article that appeared in its July 12 edition. Several
military publications and Web sites also published the
story.
She also was featured in a front-page story in The Times on
July 25. At the time, she was training at Redstone to become
an explosive ordnance disposal specialist.
…In the Times story, Smith said, “I want to understand
what happened to my daughter, what we’re fighting for
and why. I want to help other parents not get the same kind
of call I did.”
The Associated Press sent the story to its subscribers and
it was published in several other newspapers and other media
outlets. The Redstone Rocket ran a correction in its Sept.
20 edition, saying that Smith incorrectly stated that her
daughter had served in the Army.
According to the Army, an e-mail it received after the
article was published said Smith’s daughter had never
been in the military.
“We did indeed research (Smith’s) claim that her
daughter was injured in Iraq during Operation (Iraqi)
Freedom, and that her daughter’s injury was one reason
she joined the Army,” said Roake. “After a
review of the facts, it was determined that her daughter had
never been a member of the armed services.”
According to the Army, Smith did not return from an excused
leave on Sept. 12, and was considered “absent without
official leave.” She returned on Sept. 22, the
Army said, and is back with her unit, the Ordnance Munitions
and Electronics Maintenance School (OMEMS) on Redstone.
Roake said the Army “trusts our soldiers to have
integrity and that is one of our key tenets.”
He said the false claims were unfortunate and that every
attempt is made to verify information before it is released.
