Military Spouses Are Being Notified Through Facebook Of Their Husbands' Deaths

04-16-2012 • http://www.businessinsider.com, Jonn Lilyea

The first time it was reported, I thought maybe it was just an anomaly. I mean, how many people could think it’d be a good idea to notify a spouse of their loved one’s death on Facebook? But, apparently, the answer is “more than one person“;

Ariell Taylor-Brown learned her husband, the father of her two daughters, was killed in Afghanistan last week when another soldier from his unit posted on her Facebook page that there was an emergency.

“I was told via Facebook,” said Taylor-Brown. “It was a girl in his platoon. She wrote to me and told me to call her immediately,” Taylor-Brown said.

I know it’s tempting to be the purveyor of breaking news, to be the first one to report something, that’s kind of the excitement of blogging, but the military has a system in place that they’ve been using for decades, and it’s in place for a reason, and sure, it’s not perfect, but at least they provide immediate assistance, not a stupid text message on Facebook, for Pete’s sake.