Thousands of dead Americans born in the late 19th century have been told to register for military service or face fines and imprisonment after a major data cock-up.
The blunder was sparked when a member of staff working at the Pennsylvanian Selective Service mistakenly keyed in the general date range of 93-97 instead of selecting a date range of 1993-1997.
This led the computer to issue registration notices to all those born in that period – even if they were born a century earlier.
In total, 14,200 males born between 1893 and 1897 received their call-up papers.
Bert Huey – who served in World War One and died in 1995 – was one of those who received the letter. One of his relatives said: “It is funny and kind of pathetic. We couldn’t get a hold of the darn draft board, we were afraid we’d be fined or something.”
A spokeswoman for Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation said the problem emerged as the department was sharing records with the US Selective Service agency, which tracks men aged 18-25 and issues draft notices as needed.
“We made a mistake,” she admitted. “This just wasn’t good. We do apologise.” Families who received the letters have been told to ignore them, and reassured that the files of the dead men would now be deactivated.
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Now that’s what I call a cock-up – 14,000 call-up papers sent to dead http://t.co/cFdnqt81Rn
RT @DM_editor: Now that’s what I call a cock-up – 14,000 call-up papers sent to dead http://t.co/cFdnqt81Rn