Posted on 09/16/2004 7:07:11 PM PDT by churchillbuff
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Soldiers from a combat unit at Fort Carson say they have been told to re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq, the Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday.
Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were presented with that message and a re-enlistment form in a series of assemblies last week, two soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity told the newspaper.
"They said if you refuse to re-enlist with the 3rd Brigade, we'll send you down to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can stay with them, or we'll send you to Korea, or to Fort Riley (in Kansas) where they're going to Iraq," said one of the soldiers, a sergeant.
The second soldier, an enlisted man, echoed that view: "They told us if we don't re-enlist, then we'd have to be reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you're getting out, you're not."
The sergeant told the News the threat has outraged soldiers who are close to fulfilling their service obligation.
"We have a whole platoon who refuses to sign," he said.
An unidentified Fort Carson spokesman said Wednesday that 3rd Brigade recruitment officers denied threatening the soldiers with more duty in Iraq.
"I can only tell you what the retention officers told us: The soldiers were not being told they will go to Iraq, but they may go to Iraq," said the spokesman, who confirmed the re-enlistment drive is under way.
One of the soldiers provided the form to the News. If signed, it would bind the soldier to the 3rd Brigade until Dec. 31, 2007.
An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Gerard Healy, said sending soldiers to Iraq with less than one year of their enlistment remaining "would not be taken lightly."
"There's probably a lot of places on post where they could put those folks (who don't re-enlist) until their time expires," he said. "But I don't want to rule out the possibility that they could go to a unit that might deploy."
Extending a soldier's active duty is within Army authority, since the enlistment contract carries an eight-year obligation, even if a soldier signs up for shorter terms. Members of Iraq-bound units can be retained for an entire year in Iraq, even if their active-duty enlistment expires.
"I don't want to go back to Iraq," the sergeant told the News. "I went through a lot of things for the Army that weren't necessary and were risky. Iraq has changed a lot of people."
The enlisted soldier said the recruiters' message left him "filled with dread."
"For me, it wasn't about going back to Iraq. It's just the fact that I'm ready to get out of the Army," he said.
No, but churchillbluff's duty seems to be to demoralize the troops any way it can be done.
Arguing with churchillbuff is a lot like wrestling in the mud with a pig. After a few hours, you realize that he likes it.
Thanks, Dan...you just revealed yourself.
LOL! Tell me, do they pay you or do you try to spread this kind of BS just for the fun of demoralizing people and undermining our troops?
The exit strategy is to be there until we don't need to be there anymore....We are removing some troops from Germany and S Korea I hear...
I agree with you.
I'm only commenting for the lurkers who are here. We're getting a lot of lurkers lately and I don't want them to fall for that odious freeper's spin.
I think he gets paid by the word by the DNC. LOL
I never said Charlie was stupid.
This looks like an even less convincing rehash of a story
from back in May:
Report: Reservists Pressured by Scare Tactics to Re-Enlist
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/5/23/150555.shtml
In the wake of CBS being exposed as an unregistered 527
for the DNC, legacy media needs to do a lot more than say:
"... two soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity told
the newspaper."
As America's servicemen risk their lives to protect their families and ours, the federal government is preparing to put them in jail.
That's right; you heard correctly. Most societies honor their returning heroes. In America we punish them.
Soldiers who ship off to Iraq risk not only their lives but arrest and jail when they return. Those who accept a pay cut to defend their country can be incarcerated when they are unable to pay the impossible child support burdens imposed on them by the federal government's divorce machinery.
It is mind-boggling that servicemen who risk their lives to protect us will face arrest as they step off the plane. Yet this is precisely what happened after Desert Storm, and it will happen again this time.
The federal government has issued the usual PR smokescreen, urging soldiers to contact their local child support agents to request a modification. But such requests are almost never granted. Child support fills government coffers with federal taxpayers' money. Governments have no incentive to give these soldiers a break and plenty of incentive not to.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that a soldier whose domestic job pays $31,000 must pay $900 a month in child support. His reserve pay will reduce his income to $27,000. The Monitor neglects to point out that even at the higher pay, this is about half the man's take-home pay, and that he is likely to be living on less than $1,000 a month. Another father's child support comprises 73% of his income, leaving him $200 a month to live on.
Do we really believe that these heroes are "deadbeat dads" who went to Iraq to avoid paying child support? If not, perhaps it is time we began to examine whether the entire child support system is anything other than a fraud. If these men are not "deadbeats," then who is? If these arrests are an abuse of government power, why are not all the others?
Attempts to protect our civilization from external threats will be pointless if we allow it to be undermined from within. How long do we expect men to sacrifice their lives and livelihoods for their country when their government steals their children and uses those children to extort huge sums of money from their fathers?
What kind of morale can we expect in our armed forces when the same brave men who risk their lives to protect their families from invasion by terrorists are powerless to protect their families from invasion by their own government.
Stephen Baskerville
This article is a transcript of Dr. Baskerville's radio commentary recorded for the Free Congress Foundation, available for listening and downloading at http://www.fcfnewsondemand.org/.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/a-b/baskerville/03/baskerville040903.htm
[and many other news sites around the Web. See Dr. Baskerville's work in Human Events and many other trusted conservative publications.]
How difficult is it for someone to see that our “exit strategy” is to empower the elected government and leave? What kind of idiot can’t see that?
I have a neighbor who's been beside himself since the war started. He was in either Bosnia or Kosovo. He got out after coming home, and for two years has been itching to get back in and go.
His wife didn't see things his way. She went the way of his 100k job. He ditched them both for it.
Thank God there are far more soldiers this driven than there are whining idiots who joined because somebody promised them stuff. Try to keep your spouses, though, folks.
This is at least his third efforts in three days. The election is getting close so I expect him to get more active...not much time left to undermine the morale and safety of our troops while using the same tired old scare tactics of the left.
Did we have an exit strategy in Germany?
Did we have an exit strategy in Japan?
So, we have our own Tokyo Rose (Hanoi Jane) here at FR?
I am so tempted to hit the abuse button on this creep, churchill bs.
Exactly. It's deplorable. Disgraceful. That a freeper would contribute to it should not be tolerated on Free Republic.
Why Jim puts up with this person is beyond me. He undermines the morale of troops who read this site. The REAL Churchill must be rolling in his grave.
Exactly. And think of Pat Tillman!
I've heard so many stories of lawyers and accountants and doctors who gave up their excellent careers to defend this country after 9/11.
They aren't concerned with an exit strategy!
Why churchie is concerned is obvious - DNC plant. Paid by the word. Bank on it.
Do you feel the love?
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