SwiftVets.com

[CTW]

1. Why is funding slowed down? Who in congress is responsible...name by name as they voted.

2. How did this report get on the air so fast?

Once again soldiers are being used for political gain. kerry knows how to do this so well.

Make no mistake...the soldiers have been bombarded by the IVAW group .."torch" past some time back from the active Kerry supporting VVAW. There was a call for refusing to go on missions, that the IVAW would defend every soldier as needed, etc. It is just starting. CTW

Never Ever Kerry

[msindependent]

This Week's Army Times


October 15, 2004

Platoon defies orders in Iraq
Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns

By Jeremy Hudson
The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger


A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson, Miss., and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a “suicide mission” to deliver fuel, the troops’ relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered “deadlined” or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.

Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County, Miss., Detention Center, and the 16 other members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company from Rock Hill, S.C., were read their rights and moved from the military barracks into tents, Patricia McCook said her husband told her during a panicked phone call about 5 a.m. Thursday.

The platoon could be charged with the willful disobeying of orders, punishable by dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and up to five years confinement, said military law expert Mark Stevens, an associate professor of justice studies at Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C.

On Friday, the Army confirmed that the unit’s actions were under scrutiny.

“The commanding general of the 13th Corps Support Command has appointed the Deputy Commander to lead an investigation into allegations that members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company refused to participate in their assigned convoy mission October 13,” said Lt. Col Steven A. Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. Army and multinational forces in Iraq.

“The investigating team is currently in Tallil taking statements and interviewing those involved. This is an isolated incident and it is far too early in the investigation to speculate as to what happened, why it happened or any action that might be taken,” Boylan said.

“It is important to note that the mission in question was carried out using other soldiers from the unit,” Boylan said.

Boylan also confirmed that the unit is stationed in Tallil, a logistical support air base south of Nasiriyah.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he plans to submit a congressional inquiry today on behalf of the Mississippi soldiers to launch an investigation into whether they are being treated improperly.

“I would not want any member of the military to be put in a dangerous situation ill-equipped,” said Thompson, who was contacted by families. “I have had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren’t armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated. It concerns me because we made over $150 billion in funds available to equip our forces in Iraq.

“President Bush takes the position that the troops are well-armed, but if this situation is true, it calls into question how honest he has been with the country,” Thompson said.

The 343rd is a supply unit whose general mission is to deliver fuel and water. The unit includes three women and 14 men and those with ranking up to sergeant first class.

“I got a call from an officer in another unit early (Thursday) morning who told me that my husband and his platoon had been arrested on a bogus charge because they refused to go on a suicide mission,” said Jackie Butler of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Michael Butler, a 24-year reservist. “When my husband refuses to follow an order, it has to be something major.”

The platoon being held has troops from Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi and South Carolina, said Teresa Hill of Dothan, Ala., whose daughter Amber McClenny is among those being detained.

McClenny, 21, pleaded for help in a message left on her mother’s answering machine early Thursday morning.

“They are holding us against our will,” McClenny said. “We are now prisoners.”

McClenny told her mother her unit tried to deliver fuel to another base in Iraq Wednesday, but was sent back because the fuel had been contaminated with water. The platoon returned to its base, where it was told to take the fuel to another base, McClenny told her mother.

The platoon is normally escorted by armed Humvees and helicopters, but did not have that support Wednesday, McClenny told her mother.

The convoy trucks the platoon was driving had experienced problems in the past and were not being properly maintained, Hill said her daughter told her.

The situation mirrors other tales of troops being sent on missions without proper equipment.

Aviation regiments have complained of being forced to fly dangerous missions over Iraq with outdated night-vision goggles and old missile-avoidance systems. Stories of troops’ families purchasing body armor because the military didn’t provide them with adequate equipment have been included in recent presidential debates.

Patricia McCook said her husband, a staff sergeant, understands well the severity of disobeying orders. But he did not feel comfortable taking his soldiers on another trip.

“He told me that three of the vehicles they were to use were deadlines ... not safe to go in a hotbed like that,” Patricia McCook said.

Hill said the trucks her daughter’s unit was driving could not top 40 mph.

“They knew there was a 99 percent chance they were going to get ambushed or fired at,” Hill said her daughter told her. “They would have had no way to fight back.”

Kathy Harris of Vicksburg, Miss., is the mother of Aaron Gordon, 20, who is among those being detained. Her primary concern is that she has been told the soldiers have not been provided access to a judge advocate general.

Stevens said if the soldiers are being confined, law requires them to have a hearing before a magistrate within seven days.

Harris said conditions for the platoon have been difficult of late. Her son e-mailed her earlier this week to ask what the penalty would be if he became physical with a commanding officer, she said.

But Nadine Stratford of Rock Hill, S.C., said her godson Colin Durham, 20, has been happy with his time in Iraq. She has not heard from him since the platoon was detained.

“When I talked to him about a month ago, he was fine,” Stratford said. “He said it was like being at home.”

Army Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro contributed to this report.



Let's see, we just had a great report on how the military supports the president and this jerk, Rep. Bennie Thompson D Mississippi, starts ****. Plus, this is the same paper some of us decided had "issues". They need to leave this alone and let the army figure it out. We are at war and things don't always go smoothly, give me a break news media.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-453911.php

[ArmyMedicsMom]

Found this follow up in a Montana Paper.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2004/10/21/news/news01.txt

'When you're given an order, you do your job'

A Kalispell National Guard unit stepped in to make a fuel delivery in Iraq last week after a South Carolina Army Reserve unit refused the mission.

Guard Maj. Scott Smith confirmed that the 639th Quartermaster Company of the Montana National Guard delivered the fuel after some South Carolina reservists made headlines by refusing the mission as too dangerous.

Initial reports indicated another platoon of South Carolina's 343rd Quartermaster Company had filled in on the job.

But National Guard officials in Helena and the wife of a Kalispell commander said the Montana contingent had actually tackled the convoy duty.

"They [the 639th] did pick up the mission," Smith said from Helena. "I can't elaborate any further."

Cindy Regnier of Kalispell said her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Fulton Regnier, called her Monday after returning from the five-day mission. He told her none of the guardsmen in the convoy were injured.

Smith said he could not elaborate because of a military investigation into the incident. Smith said he expected to have more details in coming days.

The Army announced last week it was investigating up to 19 members of a platoon of the 343rd, based in Rock Hill, S.C., after they refused to transport supplies from Tallil Air Base near Nasiriyah to Taji, north of Baghdad.

The Army reservists claimed the aircraft fuel was contaminated and their equipment was in poor working order and not sufficiently protected with armor.

Smith, however, said the trucks driven by the Montana Guard unit were no more heavily armored than those used by the South Carolina reservists.

According to Cindy Regnier, the 343rd recently took over delivery duties from the 639th. She said her husband was actually happy to head the mission after weeks on base.

"He was probably jumping up and down saying, 'Choose me, choose me,'" she said with a laugh.

Regnier said her husband provided no details about the unit that refused to deliver the fuel. She only knew what was reported in the media.

She said her husband and the other soldiers left with the fuel about two and half hours after receiving the order. They delivered the fuel in the trucks they took with them from their Kalispell armory.

"Each unit has their own equipment," she said.

Regnier said she figured that her husband, the convoy commander, was on a mission when he failed to call her a second time last week. She then learned the protesting reservists were at Tallil Air Base with her husband.

"Then I knew they got sent," she said.

Regnier said her husband was in a much better mood when she spoke with him on Monday. Since turning over convoy duties to the South Carolina unit, the 639th spent its days on detail and maintaining equipment.

Regnier said her husband was upset that she had told the Inter Lake about the 639th's completion of the controversial convoy.

"He said, 'It's not your place to do that,'" Cindy Regnier said.

But she said the whole country was talking about the soldiers who refused the mission. She thought it only right that the ones who did their duty get some recognition.

Soldiers of the 639th come from Kalispell, Libby and other areas of Montana. They deployed from Kalispell last December to Colorado, then left for Iraq in February.

Fulton Regnier was working as a brick mason at the time of his deployment. His wife said he had been fighting a medical discharge from the Army since 1997 after the Army deemed him undeployable because of running-induced asthma.

She said his 14-year Army career ended during the Clinton administration's military cutbacks. She said he joined the Guard but continued to appeal his case to get back in the Army to finish his career.

Even so, she said her husband, now 42, didn't complain about getting sent to Iraq or taking on the job another unit had refused. He also spent six months after 9/11 guarding the airport in Helena.

"He's a great soldier," she said. "He believes when you're given an order, you do your job."

Regnier still holds out hope that, working with Montana's senators, the Army will review its decision and reinstate him.

"He loves the military," she said.
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