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We wouldn't be discussing this particular forwarded email if it weren't for two blatant factual errors in the introductory paragraph:

1. The claim that actress Cindy Williams of "Laverne and Shirley" wrote an editorial against military pay increases (False — the piece was written by a different Cindy Williams, an expert in national security issues)

2. The claim that said editorial was published in the Washington Times (False — it was published in the Washington Post)

The original Washington Post article ran in January 2000 and was copied and pasted soon thereafter in a number of newsgroup discussions. The above-quoted response by Michael Bragg (one of many such authored and circulated by outraged military personnel at the time) first appeared on the Internet about a month later, at which time it did not contain the erroneous attribution to actress Cindy Williams. As far as we can tell, that mistake crept into the text around July 2001. The message has continued to circulate in that form ever since.

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