text: Man the Force
  Casualty Reporting and Notification
  Lieutenant Colonel Harold G. “Hal” Moore commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry
  in November 1965, when an air assault into the Ia Drang valley of South Vietnam
  triggered the first major battle between U.S. Army combat units and North Vietnamese
  Army (NVA) regular regiments. After three days of bloody battle, the NVA units
  withdrew, leaving the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in possession of the battlefield around
  Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray. Moore’s unit suffered 79 Americans killed in action (KIAs),
  and 121 wounded in action (WIAs). In the following quote, Moore relates how the Army
  of 1965 had forgotten the lessons of World War II in how to perform casualty
  notifications after a large battle:
  “But on November 18, 1965, in the sleepy Southern town of Columbus, Georgia the
  first of the telegrams were already arriving from Washington. The war was so new and
  the casualties so few that the Army had not even considered establishing the casualty
  notification teams. [Instead] Western Union simply handed the telegrams over to
  Yellow Cab drivers to deliver. The driver who brought the [notification of Sergeant Billy
  R.Elliot was blind drunk and staggering. As Mrs. Elliot stood in the doorway clutching
  the yellow paper, the [driver] fell backwards off her porch and passed out in her flower
  bed, In Columbus that terrible autumn, someone had to do the right thing since the
  Army wasn’t organized to do it. For the families of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, that
  someone was my wife. As the taxicabs and telegrams spread misery and grief, Julie
  [Moore] followed them doing her best to comfort those whose lives had been
  destroyed. Mrs. Harry Kinnard, wife of the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division went
  public with criticism of the heartless telegrams, and the Army swiftly organized proper
  casualty notification teams consisting of a chaplain and an accompanying officer.
  Nobody intended for this cruelty to happen. Everyone, including the Army, was taken
  totally by surprise by the magnitude of the casualties at LZ X-Ray and Albany.”
  SECTION V – PERSONNEL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
  3-119. Personnel information management is a process to accurately collect, protect, process, store, display,
  reconcile, validate, maintain, and disseminate information about Soldiers, their family members, DOD and
  DA Civilians, military retirees, and other personnel as required. Personnel information management supports
  the execution of all HR core competencies and subordinate key functions. The information can be in the form
  of data, pictures of data, or documents. Data from documents are entered in the Army database and shared
  with the DOD IAW DODI 8320.02, Sharing Data, Information, and Technology (IT) Services in the
  Department of Defense. The Army Military Human Resource Record (AMHRR) is an administrative record
  as well as the official permanent record of military Service belonging to a Soldier. Properly managed, PIM
  satisfies the Army’s legal obligation to retain historical information about veterans, retirees, and DOD and
  DA Civilians who deploy with the force. The creation of a Soldier’s AMHRR begins with the first
  commitment by the government to the individual and commitment by the individual to the government (point
  of contract) during the acquire process and updated during the complete HR lifecycle IAW AR 600-8-104,
  Army Military Human Resource Records Management.
  3-120. Every decision or action taken by the Army is based on information. Information management is
  included as part of all military operations and the operations process (planning, preparation, execution, and
  continuous assessment). Personnel information management supports the life cycle management of Soldiers
  (access/retain, assign, sustain, evaluate/promote, and separate).
  3-121. The goal of PIM is to provide timely and accurate personnel data used to––
  * Provide accurate personnel information to support the execution of functions and actions.
  * Provide relevant and accurate personnel information to assist commanders in their
  decision-making process for HR functions and actions.