After shooting, military spokesman accidentally tweets link to satire article

Intending to link to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s statement on the shooting at Fort Hood, Rear Adm. John Kirby instead linked to an article from Duffel Blog, the military’s version of The Onion.

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The hours after a tragedy are an often confusing and chaotic time. People can make mistakes.

That’s seemingly what happened Wednesday night when Rear Adm. John Kirby, the chief spokesman for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, tweeted a link to a satirical article on Duffel Blog, a publication similar to The Onion that focuses on the military, when he intended to link Hagel’s statement on the night’s shooting at Fort Hood.

Kirby’s original tweet has been deleted, though Mashable grabbed a screenshot:

The Duffel Blog article he linked is about a Navy captain taking his official photograph, and that photo being used on the cover of Navy Times upon his firing.

Kirby’s follow-up tweet, in which he noted his “erroneous link,” is still up:

My last tweet included an erroneous link. Not sure what I did wrong. Read Secdef’s statement at http://t.co/ZV3TyaXJyi.

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