Thousands of draft notices sent to men born in the 1800s
Chuck Huey of Kingston, Pennsylvania was pretty confused when he received a notice in the mail warning his grandfather, Bert Huey, that if he didn't sign up for the draft he would face a fine and imprisonment.
Chuck is 73, and his grandfather, a World War I veteran, died in 1995 at the age of 100. "I said, 'Geez, what the hell is this about?'" he told The Associated Press. "We were just totally dumbfounded."
It turns out that the Selective Service System mistakenly sent more than 14,000 notices to men born in Pennsylvania between 1893 and 1897, telling them they had to register for the military draft or face punishment. The mix-up occurred when hundreds of thousands of records were transferred from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to the Selective Service. A clerk entering data did not check off the century people were born in, thus sending out notices to men born between 1993 and 1997, as well as 1893 and 1897.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Selective Service said they are sorry for the error, and anyone who receives a notice for a long dead ancestor (the youngest would be turning 117 this year) is told to ignore the correspondence. Chuck Huey tried to straighten things out over the phone, but ended up even more frustrated as he couldn't ever speak to a live person. He said he went out of his way to try to settle the matter because "you just never know. You don't want to mess around with the federal government."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Arizona grand jury indicts 18 in Trump fake elector plot
Speed Read The state charged Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies in 2020 election interference case
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Antony Gormley's Time Horizon – a 'judgmental army' of 100 cast-iron men
The Week Recommends Sculptures are 'everymen questioning the privilege of their surroundings' at the Norfolk stately home
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
'King's horses take free rein through London'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published