Sent to Iraq by Mistake

July 7, 2006 — -- Jim Dillinger got an unexpected letter from the Defense Department in May, 2004, saying he was one of 5,600 members who were being deployed to Iraq.

The then-43-year-old hadn't been in service with the Ohio National Guard for almost a decade, and he had a life away from the military -- a wife, Tammy, and three kids. So he was shocked when he got the request from the National Guard, because he'd thought his status was "individual ready reserve" (IRR).

For the next five months, until he reported for duty in October of 2004, Dillinger e-mailed and called different military organizations, including the National Guard Bureau. He even contacted an Ohio senator and representative to find out why he was being deployed.

"All I was told was 'stop-loss' -- all anyone wanted to tell me was 'stop-loss' to get me to go," Dillinger said. The National Guard Bureau in Washington told him that under the stop-loss program, instituted in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, he could not be discharged, he said.

"My personal opinion was that they didn't care enough to look into the mistake," he said. "They knew they needed people and they knew they were going to get a lot of no-shows."

He even considered filing for a hardship exemption because one of his daughters had medical problems, but in the end, he decided to report for duty.

So, Dillinger -- who entered the military in 1979 and rose to the rank of captain -- said goodbye to his family, and on Dec. 31, 2004, he left for Iraq, sent to do one of the most dangerous jobs there -- destroying roadside bombs.

"I thought I was obviously wrong and they must know what they were doing because all these thousands of officers were being deployed. I was torn," he said. "I had been involved in the military for so long that I had put a lot of faith and trust in the military."

His faith and trust were crushed when, one year later, Dillinger got an even bigger surprise -- the Army told him he'd been sent to Iraq because of a "paperwork error." It turns out Dillinger's obligation to serve had actually ended five years earlier.