When the commanding officer writes a letter and tells you it's being sent in your name, you'd need a good bit of nerve to tell him to shove it.

Except, of course, according to that story, they didn't even get the opportunity to refuse to have it sent in their name.

This is the kind of plotline that would crop up in the TV series Mash. And Hawkeye would have the right words for saying how this kind of thing just stinks. Turns soldiers into propaganda fodder.