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.
Jihad must be exterminated. It cannot be negotiated and bargained with.
This is a modern Crusade.
I wondered when you were going to beat that drum. Go back to this thread and answer my question, and this time not with a question please.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1218243/posts
I have inside sources at Ft. Carson and many other places, I'll call and ask about this. I all ready know the answer though.......TOTAL Bull $hit....
His every post repeats that crude and superficial attempt to associate his sniveling isolationism with the indomitable Lion; and each time it occurs it sounds the awkward, dysphonic clang of his own ignorant, lying fraud.
I recall there was a touch of poison gas used in WWI. My grandpa was there.
For you, in your rudimentary understanding of Churchill, the phrase 'broad sunlit uplands' refers to where your mohammaden masters send you to graze.
If you have no sense of honor, no awareness of the contempt held for you here, then by all means, continue on your course. In the end, your departure will be your choice . . . or not.
Do you believe the administration has a laundry list of future conquests, and what proof will you provide?
So the brain damage is fairly recent then?
What you do is post negative articles. Never anything positive.
Your "concern" is laughable. With concern like yours and Kerry's, we may as well go back to the Vietnam days.
Go away.
TokyoRoseBuff...
(and take Willie Green wicha!)
Here's a suitably leftist question for Neville:
Doesn't your widespread rejection make you wonder why you are so 'hated?' How has Neville contribued to the root causes of this animus?
LOL. Willie is at least pro-nuclear-power.
It's just that I want to use it to power my future hydrogen muscle car, and he wants to use it to power eurotrains.
Now THAT's below the belt. My Master was crucified and resurrected. The "mohammadens" claim it was all a hoax - and they persecute His followers to this day. I can't stop you from being a juvenile name-caller -- sticking out your tongue is apparently the only way you know how to argue -- but I draw the line at calling me a follower of mohammed, his "god", his mullahs or his religion.
LOL.
The Neville Chamberlain of his time.
God bless all of you who are serving, have served, will serve and do support our troops.
Churchillbuff, are you really even an American? Regardless, you're not one of us.
Stop disgracing a good mans name and give yourself a cool new alias like "WillieGreenofIraq" or "ChickenLittle" or "10percenter".
Admit it. YOU tore up that little girl's Bush-Cheney '04 sign and made her cry.
You are not a follower of mohammed. I do not claim that.
But, your foreign policy choices WOULD lead to your dhimmitude...if everyone else weren't defending you in spite of yourself.
Thanks, but I'll stick with Churchillbuff. Like Churchill, I believe in fighting real enemies who pose real danger to national interests. Iraq, with no WMDs and a 4th rate army, wasn't worth the lives of our young men and women.
Do you believe the administration has a laundry list of future conquests, and what proof will you provide?
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