Who knows... Immediately after the shooting, Loughner's "clean-cut white male" description hit the web. Someone probably thought, "He must be a vet" and ran with it and others picked it up as fact.
There was so much misinformation hitting the interwebs in the hours following the shooting. I was watching Fox News when Shep gave the shooter's misspelled name and moments later Jared "Laughner" had several bogus Facebook profiles already established where he was everything from a gay pedophile to a diehard Sarah Palin supporter.
Misinformation at the speed of light these days.
Yeah, Shep almost started to laugh when he said Laughner, I think he said Laughter first actually.