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.
Yeah...I'm still trying to figure out how he got from "searching for an exit strategy" to this story he just posted. Maybe it's just coincidence, but it comes awful close to what Kerry was bitching about today at the NG conference.
What is there to "put up with"? I post news articles from reputable newspapers, for discussion. Why is that a crime? I've been doing so since 1998 - long before the invasion of Iraq.
Our exit strategy is simple. First we are going to exit to the East into Syria and Lebannon, putting the squeeze on Hammas and ending the terrorists use of Syria as a base of organization.
Next, unless they take care of it themselves, we'll exit to the West into Iran.
East, then West. Pretty simple plan.
Why don't you just go over to LP and post your garbage there? Nobody here ever agree with you or likes what you post.Doesn't THAT tell you something?
God bless our Ceegar Man....and all those like him..All gave some, some gave all.
God bless our armed forces and all who wait for them at home.
AMERICA..HOME OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE
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Watch "War Stories" on FoxNews with Ollie on Sunday. We are not floundering. |
this article appeared in major, mainstream Colorado newspapers TODAY. It's a big topic of news in Colorado TODAY. Why should I not be allowed to post it?
Ooooh, the tears of self-pity. And they're so moist, too.
Constantly parroting democrat talking points is a direct contravention of our founder's prime directive. And you know it.
The articles are targeted to demoralize, and on top of that you spread a rich creamy frosting of McAuliffine lies.
Be gone. If you have any sense of propriety or self-awareness, do yourself and us all a favor, and withdraw your 'service' here.
That kind of talk is why a lot of people think a draft is in our future.
By CHANTAL ESCOTO
The Leaf-Chronicle
 Greg Williamson/The Leaf-Chronicle Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Turner, left, commander of the 101st Airborne Division listens as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld addresses questions at the Fort Campbell Pratt Museum. Rumsfeld was on post Tuesday to visit troops.
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Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday defended U.S. actions in Iraq and acknowledged the sacrifices made by the military and their families.
"The folks that we're up against are extremists and they're determined to try and take back that country ,and the Iraqi people, I don't believe, are going to let them do it," he said.
"You cannot be involved as I am and not see the heartbreak of lives that aren't going to be lived and the lives that are going to be lived differently because of the loss of limbs and eyesight," Rumsfeld said. "The thing that is just amazing and wonderful is the personal courage, the spirit, the determination on the part of the wounded to get back to their unit. The pride of the families -- It doesn't leave your mind very often.
"We're a fortunate country that we've got, once again, a generation of people who understand there are things that are worth fighting for. The task of defending and protecting the American people has to fall to someone and that they're willing to raise their hand and say, 'Send me.' God bless them."
Speaking at a press conference at Fort Campbell's Don F. Pratt Museum, Rumsfeld also defended the Pentagon's "stop-loss" policy, the program that retains service members with in-demand jobs likes transportation, aviation, medical and special operations in the active military longer than expected.
"The Army has had stop-loss for decades," he said. "Everyone in the military is a volunteer and when they enter, they know about the stop-loss policy that exists. It's rooted in reality. Rather than stripping the unit's integrity, they have a stop-loss that keeps them in the unit until the unit is no longer deployed. It's not a surprise. It is not a back-door draft."
He also said the U.S. is committed to making sure other countries, like North Korea and Iran, comply with international law when it comes to nuclear weapons. While he did not rule out the use of military might, he said it's an option of last resort.
"Clearly, the use of force is everyone's last choice," Rumsfeld said, adding that Russia, South Korea, Japan, China and the United States need to continue talks with Iran and North Korea -- two of three countries President Bush has labeled as the "Axis of Evil."
Iraq was the third country.
But if that military muscle is required, he said soldiers will have the equipment they need to fight.
The 101st Airborne Division is expected to finish its transformation to four-brigade combat teams by March of next year and should be ready for deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan or some other global hot spot by then.
"They're going to have the equipment they need," Rumsfeld said, adding that Congress and President Bush are fully committed to funding the military.
"Now what happens sometimes is that something new comes along in the middle of a conflict that's developmental and is in short supply because it didn't exist," he said, citing the armed predator (unmanned reconnaissance plane) and steel-reinforced Humvees as examples.
"But this outfit will find that they will be well-equipped, very well-equipped," he said of the 101st.
Chantal Escoto covers military affairs. You may contact her by calling 245-0216 or e-mail at chantalescoto@theleafchronicle.com.
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stories/20040915/localnews/1236175.html
See my tagline.
I am with you...I would love to be thirty again in the shape I was in and be able to take this war to the enemy on his home turf...
I hear ya about the SA...me to...only I cannot use the CPAP...so its a killer...watch it like a hawk...if you can...
God bless and prayers for healing you up...
I hate apnea...but whatta gonna do...
If you want an exit strategy, go ask Kerry. I'm sure he'll be willing to provide you with one...or two...or three.
Frankly, the President has said we won't be in Iraq one day longer than necessary. I believe he's said we will leave if the Iraqi government asks us to. He has also said that we will not abandon the Iraqi people. That tells me that we will be in Iraq until such a time when we feel (and the Iraqis feel) that the country has stabilized, the insurgents have been evicted, and the people of Iraq can safely run the country on their own. Now that could take a year, two years or more. It certainly isn't going to happen overnight. It took us 7-8 years to gain stability in Germany and Japan, and we didn't have any kind of strategy once that war ended. According to the press we were floundering then too.
When our soldiers jumped into Holland in September of 1944 and the whole operation went bad, the press reported we were floundering. When our troops were surrounded by the Germans at Bastogne in the winter of 1944-45, the press had us floundering. When our Marines were pinned down and being picked off by the Japs on Iwo Jima, we were floundering, and when thousands of American and Filipino soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japs and sent on the Bataan Death March, we were floundering.
If you are such a pessimist on the ability of our soldiers to do the job they were sent to do, perhaps you should change your screen name to nevillechamberlainbuff.
I hate it when people like that guy don't understand the basic premise of 'Freedom isn't Free.'
Sorry, but since I've been here for more than six years, posting against Clinton and liberals consistently, I'm not inclined to follow your demand that I leave so you can't hear any opinions that differ from your own. Like you, the Islamofascists can't stand the idea of free speech or differing views.
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