PRANK CALLERS HARASS MILITARY SPOUSES

[Ebony-Patriot]

PRANK CALLERS HARASS MILITARY SPOUSES

( 04-10-2003 ) - Callers claiming to be American Red Cross officials have been phoning the spouses of Camp Pendleton Marines, telling them their loved ones have been killed in the war in Iraq.

A statement issued by a base spokesman warned military spouses to be wary of such callers and to report them to the authorities.

"The Marine Corps does not utilize the Red Cross for casualty notification," the statement said.

Family members of those killed in action overseas are told about the deaths by teams of uniformed Marine and Navy officers, usually a chaplain.

"I honestly can't even fathom someone with that mentality," said Julia, an enlisted wife whose husband is a Marine Corps Recruit Depot drill instructor. "I can't even go there in my mind. But I would assume that a young spouse could believe that kind of call ... and her world could be shattered.”

The woman said that many of the young wives she sees are teenagers, coming into the military lifestyle along with their young husbands who have just graduated from basic training.

Base officials declined to say whether investigators have identified the callers or made any arrests.

[Ebony-Patriot]

This is sad. It's one thing to target the military members themselves (we can and will defend ourselves), but it's different to target the families of the military.

WHO'S THE F'N TERRORIST?

[finnman69]

Sounds like tactics of the DUmmies.

[Hodar]

Part of the Anti-war movement ... to fight against the war ... at any cost.

No caller ID?

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[paddles]

The people doing this are the product of a h**d-job on a hot rock in August.

[tm61]

disgusting. I guess this is part of how they support the troops. just hope they trace the calls. those punks deserve a world class beating.

[theDentist]

Caller ID can be turned on or off with a prefix, but (depending upon TelCo switch and the POP) the Telephone Company may have the capability to find the point of origination under any event. I do hope they backtrack to the caller. I want their faces on the front of every newspaper throughout the nation.

[meandog]

Exactly my thought! Only whining sicko D-U RATs would think of something so cruely un-American!

[Dead Dog]

Absolutely, it is terrorism, and should be prosecuted as such.

[mystery-ak]

This is one reason I keep a low profile when my hubby is away. I can't understand why spouses and family members tell everybody including the media about their service members. The Army even advises families against *advertising* that their spouse is deployed.
I don't want all the crazies in the world to know that Im alone.

btw....Im also armed....LOL

[antaresequity]

Link please?

Several of these incidence were reported several days back and a thread was posted...need a little help with research on this...anyone got the prior thread? Anyone got a link to a substantiation

Without credible confirmation this appears to be an urban myth in the making

Thanks

[BeerSwillr]

Most phone companies offer a call trace feature that works whether call id was blocked or not.

How It Works:
When you receive a bothersome phone call, hang up and wait ten seconds, then press *57 (or dial 1157 on a rotary phone). The last number that called you will be traced.

After you initiate Call Trace, a recording will let you know whether the trace is successful and provide an 800 number you can call to take legal action. Write down the time and date of the call to match up with the phone company records. The traced number is sent to a law enforcement agency and the telephone company security department.

You may need to sign up to make Call Trace available on your line.

[Texas_Jarhead]

damn, someone needs a severe ass whippin

[green team 1999]

got to be the anti-war bastards,

[AlanSC]

"...product of a h**d-job on a hot rock in August"

That was a fantastic line!

[FryingPan101]

This happened to me when my husband was on his first tour in Vietnam. I had a four year old and two year old daughters at that time. I was told by a female caller from the "Red Cross" to stay by the phone for further instructions. I waited (dumb) and waited and waited. I was afraid to call my husband's parents and tell them their son was dead. I was falling apart. Finally I received a call at 9 pm from my parents. They called the Red Cross and were told no such call was made to me from their office. This horror happened repeatedly to other young wives. They arrested a fellow Army wife about four months after the incident. She was seventeen years old and thought this was fun.

[antaresequity]

Freepers

The first report of this surfaced shortly after hostilities began; I believe it came shortly after the Al Jazeera network broadcast images of our POW's [507'th]. A few families had received phone calls stating that their loved ones had either been killed, captured or were missing in action. As I recall, some of these initial incidence of 'pranks' followed a showing of those service members on MSNBC's 'America's Bravest wall. 

Since those initial reports...the matter went largely silent and recently re-surfaces. I think it would be incumbent on us [Freepers], to dig a little deeper and see if this new wave of 'pranks' correspond with 'America's Bravest' wall on MSNBC. 

Whether or not there is a correlation, I think it would be a good idea to make MSNBC aware of this report, and politely request that when they post a service member to their wall, that they do not give sufficient information that would allow a nefarious individual from perpetrating such a prank, or worse. At least they will be made aware of the issue, and consider the responsibility that comes with publicly displaying the photo of, and name, rank and unit of active duty service members.

MSNBC Americas Bravest

Regards

 

 

 

[amused]

Hmmmmmm...similar to the call a "support the Troops" rally participant got after his picture appeared in an AZ paper with his name.

Of course here in San Diego in wouldn't be hard to find family members with people overseas in Iraq. Somewhere along the lines of a 1/5 of the troops there came from this area's bases.

[metalboy]

I think we should take this guys phone away.