I agree that the errors are terrible. It is hard to understand how errors like the use of modern images of American troops could have gone undetected, particular by veterans of the war. A basic google search for images would have provided plenty of accurate options.
If I could raise one very small observation that does not seek to excuse but rather perhaps to encourage some sympathy. I have worked on community commemoration activities, some involving military service, others of a more general nature. Invariably, before you start there is the traditional call for assistance and information so that no one (particularly no one 'important') is forgotten. Even in high profile, emotional commemorations, the response to a general call for information was pretty ordinary. Individual approaches were more fruitful but the Catch 22 was that you had to know who to approach before being able to target them. Without fail, the information the week after something was published or commemorated in stone far outweighed the input that had dribbled in over the three months prior to reaching the point of no return. As I have done to these veterans at the start of this post, people were quite prepared to say 'You should have ...', 'Why didn't you ...' and the very hard to refute 'You have shown no respect for the ...' Over the past year or so a few people have approached me for advice about their own projects and I have invariably encouraged then to advertise widely and regularly for information. In their innocence they say 'I will probably get most of what I need from that'. I reply 'Nowhere near it ... but at least when people complain you can ask them 'why didn't you respond earlier'?
I used to work for a guy who would inevitably ask when something went wrong whether 'If you had your time again, would you do things differently'. It was of course a trap because any 'sane' person felt compelled to say 'yes' and then he would pounce. I played ball the first time, but after that I would look him square in the face and say 'absolutely not. If the same circumstances arose again, I would do exactly the same thing'. To prove my point, I would actually give it a go. Sanity is such a subjective thing don't you think?
