Despite a U.S. Army W.T.F.! Moments story that went viral Wednesday, two soldiers did not deliver stillborn babies while training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, last month, a 10th Mountain Division spokesman told Army Times on Friday.
The popular Facebook page and website posted a story about soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division in their second and third trimesters being forced to train at the Joint Readiness Training Center, which resulted in them going into labor and delivering stillborn fetuses.
"Not one, but two girls were involved in events that resulted in both of them going into labor and, sadly enough, resulted in both babies being stillborn," wrote Jose Tamale, one of the pseudonyms used for stories written mostly by active duty soldiers.
The story was exaggerated, according to officials, but USAWTFM told Army Times on Friday that they stand by their story.
"This has been reported up the chain of command, and the higher command has taken these allegations seriously. The chain of command exercised diligence and verified through medical providers and the command teams that these claims were unfounded," said Staff Sgt. Nathan Akridge, a spokesman for 3rd BCT, 10th Mountain. "The welfare of our soldiers is taken very seriously, and we will not compromise it to complete training."
On Thursday, the commander of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain took to Facebook with a statement clearing up the misinformation, which had spread throughout Facebook and beyond.
The Army's rules state that pregnant and post-partum soldiers are nondeployable, Col. Brian Sullivan wrote. However, one Army regulation allows field duty for women who are up to 20 weeks pregnant, which may have caused confusion, though it doesn't apply to combat training centers, he added.
What really happened, according to the statement, is that one pregnant soldier who did not deploy to JRTC for the rotation did miscarry during the time in question.
"Distraught, she asked for the baby's father to be with her. We redeployed the baby's father from JRTC," Sullivan wrote. "[Command Sgt. Maj. Ronald] Bly and I determined that the priority must be the mother's grief."
Another soldier did have a scare while at JRTC, he added, but she deployed not knowing she was pregnant, was placed on light duty and later had a "threatened miscarriage."
"Upon redeployment to Fort Polk, the soldier has had several follow on medical appointments that confirmed she is still pregnant," Sullivan wrote.
USAWTFM, however, disputes 10th Mountain's version of the story.
"This flies in the face of well over two dozen anonymous sources with firsthand knowledge of the situation," according to spokesman Mike Trysom. "Even as the unit released statements, they were working behind the scenes to silence 'leakers' and threaten those who interact with USAWTFM through our Facebook page."
Trysom acknowledged "minor" factual errors and said that the organization is diligent about correcting the record when necessary.
However, he claimed, they are not sold on the official version.
"In this case, the unit has provided us the facts as they see them — but those facts continue to be refuted by our loyal followers at Fort Polk," Trysom said. "Until such a time as we can determine the facts that officials at 3-10 and 10th Mountain Division are presenting as 100 percent factually accurate, we will stand by our work."
In his statement, Sullivan urged integrity when dealing with the online rumor mill.
"With regard to the spread of misinformation, we’ve asked our leaders to take this opportunity to talk about integrity, an Army Value," he wrote. "We need to acknowledge the difficulty in finding integrity in the vitriol that seemingly defines social media, and by extension our public discourse."
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
