Man serves year in Iraq because of military clerical error
Associated Press
MOUNT ORAB, Ohio - A man whose military service was supposed to end seven years ago was sent to Iraq for a year by mistake because of an incorrect discharge date in his records.
Jim Dillinger, who lives outside this city about 30 miles east of Cincinnati, was 43 when he received a letter from the Defense Department in May 2004 that said he was one of 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve being sent to Iraq. The IRR is a component of the Army made up of retired soldiers who agree to be subject to recall to active duty for a defined time.
When Dillinger signed up for the IRR in 1997, his contract said his military obligation would end in April 1999. But his personnel record said his service would end in July 2010.
The error dated back to 1996, when Dillinger resigned his captain's commission in the Ohio National Guard and re-enlisted as a noncommissioned officer. After serving in the guard for 17 years, Dillinger said he reached a point where his wife and three children came first. July 2010 was when Dillinger would have been discharged if he had remained a captain.
"They were still carrying me on the books as a captain," said Dillinger, now 45. "But I left the guard and entered the IRR as a sergeant. And nobody caught it. Including me."
When Dillinger got the letter recalling him to duty, he tried to find out if he was still obligated to serve. A captain at the National Guard Bureau in Washington told him he had not been discharged because of the military's "stop-loss" program, which kept thousands of soldiers from leaving the service at the end of their enlistment tours or retirement dates.
"That explanation didn't make complete sense to me, but I accepted it," Dillinger said. "I'd been in the Army a long time, and when they tell you something, you believe it."
Dillinger was assigned to the 467th Engineer Battalion and left in January 2005 for Iraq, where he spent a year searching for and destroying roadside bombs. When he returned to Fort Benning, Ga., in December, he saw the discharge date in his personnel records for the first time.
"My eyes popped out of my head," Dillinger said. "I couldn't believe that was right. And I knew darn well that it could mean I'd be deployed again."
He began calling and sending e-mail messages to the National Guard and the Army Human Resources Command when he returned home. An Army staff sergeant asked a human resources assistant to investigate, according to e-mail messages Dillinger supplied to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The assistant, Donna Bright, sent an e-mail to Staff Sgt. Lawrence McGaughy on May 22, saying Dillinger's personnel record had the wrong discharge date.
"Let the SM (service member) know that we are sorry for any inconvenience and hardship this might have caused him and his family," Bright wrote.
Dillinger's discharge papers were issued the next day, and he said he has gotten two phone calls from the Human Resources Command apologizing for the mistake.
A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from a Human Resources Command official.
"I honestly believe I helped accomplish something over there, and the men I served with, they are like brothers to me," Dillinger said. "But I can't get past the fact that I should never have been sent there in the first place."
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MOUNT ORAB, Ohio - A man whose military service was supposed to end seven years ago was sent to Iraq for a year by mistake because of an incorrect discharge date in his records.
Jim Dillinger, who lives outside this city about 30 miles east of Cincinnati, was 43 when he received a letter from the Defense Department in May 2004 that said he was one of 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve being sent to Iraq. The IRR is a component of the Army made up of retired soldiers who agree to be subject to recall to active duty for a defined time.
When Dillinger signed up for the IRR in 1997, his contract said his military obligation would end in April 1999. But his personnel record said his service would end in July 2010.
The error dated back to 1996, when Dillinger resigned his captain's commission in the Ohio National Guard and re-enlisted as a noncommissioned officer. After serving in the guard for 17 years, Dillinger said he reached a point where his wife and three children came first. July 2010 was when Dillinger would have been discharged if he had remained a captain.
"They were still carrying me on the books as a captain," said Dillinger, now 45. "But I left the guard and entered the IRR as a sergeant. And nobody caught it. Including me."
When Dillinger got the letter recalling him to duty, he tried to find out if he was still obligated to serve. A captain at the National Guard Bureau in Washington told him he had not been discharged because of the military's "stop-loss" program, which kept thousands of soldiers from leaving the service at the end of their enlistment tours or retirement dates.
"That explanation didn't make complete sense to me, but I accepted it," Dillinger said. "I'd been in the Army a long time, and when they tell you something, you believe it."
Dillinger was assigned to the 467th Engineer Battalion and left in January 2005 for Iraq, where he spent a year searching for and destroying roadside bombs. When he returned to Fort Benning, Ga., in December, he saw the discharge date in his personnel records for the first time.
"My eyes popped out of my head," Dillinger said. "I couldn't believe that was right. And I knew darn well that it could mean I'd be deployed again."
He began calling and sending e-mail messages to the National Guard and the Army Human Resources Command when he returned home. An Army staff sergeant asked a human resources assistant to investigate, according to e-mail messages Dillinger supplied to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The assistant, Donna Bright, sent an e-mail to Staff Sgt. Lawrence McGaughy on May 22, saying Dillinger's personnel record had the wrong discharge date.
"Let the SM (service member) know that we are sorry for any inconvenience and hardship this might have caused him and his family," Bright wrote.
Dillinger's discharge papers were issued the next day, and he said he has gotten two phone calls from the Human Resources Command apologizing for the mistake.
A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from a Human Resources Command official.
"I honestly believe I helped accomplish something over there, and the men I served with, they are like brothers to me," Dillinger said. "But I can't get past the fact that I should never have been sent there in the first place."
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