Platoon defies orders in Iraq; cites safety concerns

The Drudge report ^ | Oct. 15, 2004 | Drudge

[blogblogginaway]

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson 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 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.

No military officials were able to confirm or deny the detainment of the platoon Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson 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had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren't armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated.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.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Thanks for digging that up. Confirms my suspicions. Unbelievable. If true, there has GOT to be some sort of mutiny charge that can be leveled against them.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Rove couldn't be so stupid as to ever risk it being found out were he the leaker. I wonder if someone in the other camp is 'leaking' that info just as a smear.

[sarasota]

In an attempt to clear things up, I only posted this inference to try to get the truth on freerepublic, based on a personal email from a freeper friend. Turns out Rove testified today, as another freeper posted, so there was no truth to my original post--only paranoia.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Whew (wipe brow). That's good to hear. The last thing we need is a scandal like that!

[aft_lizard]

I am speaking from a position of being a fuel transporter in Iraq and having spent 14 years in transportation, sure there is more to it then reported but then again I am only commenting on whats being reported

[Squantos]

If the other troops in the unit went then these brig rats are toast.........gonna be ugly.......

I would like to understand the current crop of NCO's that allow such to get out of hand. What has happened to the pride of controlling , managing and commanding such volunteers. NCO status is too easy to get these days..... I saw lifers early in my career that shouldn't have been responsible for a litter of kittens much a platoon of men and women.

Professional Military Education via Junior & Senior NCO Academies taught the management skills, abilities and profesionalism that was a source of pride in ones unit.

Troops didn't have to question every decision or order as they knew that leadership weighed people and mission completion decisions . Decisions which are always equally considered by their NCO's above them. NCO's second guessed the officers and did the questioning. One of those arrested seems to have some time in and was a senior NCO ?
Gonna have to hear more of this issue as something is really messed up in that entire unit.........

Just how I see it from a gazillion miles away on the couch !

[TexKat]

Carolyn Pfaus, sister of Army National Guard Sgt. Russell L. Collier, wipes away tears as she talks about her brother Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004, in North Little Rock, Ark. Sgt. Collier, a medic from Harrison, Ark., was killed in Taji, Iraq, on Sunday. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

Army Reserve Sgt. Larry O. McCook, of Jackson, Miss., shown in this 2004 handout photograph taken at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond, Miss., where he is a deputy, is one of several soldiers said to be part of a reservist supply unit in Iraq (news - web sites) that refused to go on a convoy mission. According to his wife, Patricia McCook, her husband and other reservists refused to go on a 'suicide mission' to deliver fuel, to Taji, Iraq, north of Baghdad, because they considered their vehicles unsafe. (AP Photo/Hinds County Sheriff's Office, File)

Task Force Baghdad Soldier Dies Of Injuries From Attack In Iraq

Spc. Ronald W. Baker, 34, of Cabot, Ark., died Wednesday in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries sustained in a car bombing on Oct. 7 in Taji, Iraq. Baker was injured when the car bomb detonated near his patrol vehicle.

[river rat]

Your point about there being no "front" or "line" is valid..
But, that has been pretty much the case in almost every war since the trenches of WWI.

There were many "fronts" in WWII, several in Korea, none in Vietnam.... You could get killed easily in any part of Vietnam, except perhaps within the Saigon whore houses frequented by our fearless "jounalists", "diplomats", visiting politicians, and REMFs...

You also make an excellent point about the convoys being an "easier" target for less than "combative" Islamanazis....

Semper Fi

[river rat]

"If the other troops in the unit went then these brig rats are toast.........gonna be ugly.......

Either that, or a lot of folks are going to use the "It's too dangerous" ploy in the future....

That, would be one hell of a way to run an Army..

You know, I feared telling my Gunny "I don't want to do X" more than I feared doing X! There would be no option of going to the brig, for refusing a direct order. Gunny would have killed me on the spot....as a "lesson demo for the day"

Semper Fi

[TexKat]

The naysayers greatly delayed the approval which, in turn, delayed the delivery of the equipment.

That is not exactly the truth. There is more to the story to the delay of better protection vehicle equipment and other equipment that was supposed to be shipped to Baghdad. Some of it was just sitting on a dock somewhere. Decisions over the makers of the protective vests, etc. More red tape. More of someone dropped the ball. I listened to the live hearing on C-Span regarding this matter some months ago.

[Chief_Joe]

They are crying about no MP escort, which I dealt with in the very first phase of the war and some deadlined equipment, which as you know can be everything from a broken headlight to a blown transmission.

The article was sparse on details. I'll admit I jumped the gun. I'm sensitive to the needs of troops in the field and on the front lines, and I have an almost immediate and reflexive response when I think they don't have the support they need. That being said, I caught a glimpse of the complaining wife of one of the soldiers on TV. Boy she sounded hysterical. Then I heard the call from a woman soldier to her mother, and she too sounded hysterical. These two women saddened and disturbed me. It saddened me that their fears were being used to undermine our mission, and it disturbed me that the woman soldier would be calling home to have her mother put out the word about what's happening to her. This is where I say whoa. What's happening to you is what should be happening to a soldier who is disobedient, disrespectful, unwilling to do his/her duty, and has an attitude. There are some things that still bother me about this story. I just think all these PC wo-mandates over the years have truly weakened our military, even greater than I had first supposed.

[BladeLWS]

Everyone, I recommend read this, from a friend of mine, he is an ex-Marine.

"Wow!
Well, first off, these are NOT Marines, they are Army Quartermaster troops.
Now then....I'm not there, but here's what it sounds like to me. These troops are getting really really tired of driving around in the desert in old equipment, which is probably really old because it belongs to a guard unit. Thanks Bill Clinton! These vehicles probably aren't the best maintained things on the planet (guard vehicles tend to not be) and a year or so of driving around in the desert probably hasn't helped the already poor state they arrived in. Also, I smell a unit with an asshole in command as the kid is asking about slugging his CO. I also smell a unit with a *severe* leadership problem, as this ass is ready to send a half strength convoy out, in poorly maintained or worn out vehicles with no escort or air cover, to deliver contaminated fuel, In an area known for being prime territory for ambushes. These are FUEL trucks now, keep in mind, which is sort of like the holy grail for the Iraqi "insurgents" because they make such pretty colors when they explode. Add it all up and you get? A unit with a morale problem, peopled with troops who feel they are being ordered to slaughter by an uncaring martinet of a commander. The unit completed the mission with another platoon only after the first platoon refused a direct order.
I place the whole blame for this entire incident squarely on the unit commander. He should know better than to let any of these conditions get to this point. He's obviously not paying as much attention as he should be.
It's not uncommon to have a single soldier, or even a squad refuse to obey an order that seems hazardous. However, when an entire platoon refuses, there is something really, really wrong with the leadership of that unit. Even worse, the commander decides the only way he can deal with it is to prosecute the whole unit! What a tool! This guy must have slept through most of ROTC.
Obviously, the unit felt the delivery was not worth the risk, which, considering the fuel was contaminated, seems to make sense on the surface. These folks are at best poorly trained and led in this unit and the refusal to obey an order in these type of conditions is less than surprising."

[epaul]

ooooo haaaaaaaah

ya got it!!!

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

My point was that if everyone (including Kerry) were really fired up to win this war, as the country was during WWII, that equipment would have made it there in good time. I didn't mean naysaying literally. I meant it to represent any attitude that is less-than-committed. That kind of red tape (equipment sitting on the docks) should be a crime when we have soldiers in combat. There's no excuse for it.

[elbucko]

All my previous comments are void. This units has female personal. This is the sort of situation that those of us who do not condone females in combat units are afraid of.

[Nova]

"you do whatever it takes"

I guess some troops (it is a Reserve Platoon) don't fully understand that.

[aft_lizard]

A few questions come up on the fuel contamination. Was the tank properly maintained? Or did the contamination come from the bag farm? How long had the unit known the fuel in there trucks were contaminated? Was the unit maintenance CWO making sure that his guys were checking the lists and fixing problems? Or was the 2404's being properly maintained in the first place? Slow trucks are not the problem since they say there trucks max out at 40 mph, 5 mph faster than a recommended convoy speed with a loaded fuel truck. Were the trucks m931's?M932's? A1,A2 suffixes? Were they even there own issued trucks or were they issued them there from another unit? The complaints about body armor for them is moot, they do not uparmor 5 tons, at least to the best of my long knowledge. If a soldier takes it upon himself he could throw some sand bags on the floor or take there jack plates out of the tool box and place them on the floor.

It all comes down to Maintenance and Leadership on this one, but what I have read it sounds like a unit in bad shape with low morale and some trouble makers in there midst.

[Racehorse]

I was on Guam years ago and the Air Force had an “Arc Light” Memorial [a B-52] dedicated to those who had lost their lives flying Arc Light missions over Vietnam. Maintenance trucks would periodically pull up to memorial and cannibalize the memorial.

BTW, the president then was none other than the peanut farmer himself.

Yeah, I remember those days in Carter's/Democrat's Air Force. The supply system was so depleted our request for F-4 bleed air duct clamps were being cannibalized from the bone yard at Davis Monthan! ! ! Clamps, for gawd-sake!

[justshutupandtakeit]

This is what we have all been worried about females in the front lines is a grave danger to any mission because we have a RATbastardmedia which will do anything to destroy pro-American forces at home or abroad. And it will find these whiners to exploit particularly when the traitorous Black Caucus is willing to get involved.

Protecting President Bush is the most effective means of protecting our troops. They are in his thoughts and prayers constantly and I am sure he would be happy to give up the office if he could be guaranteed that by doing so they would be protected.

There is no group of Americans more concerned with our troops than here but we must always be aware that the typical f.u.s which occur in ALL military action will be seized upon by the traitors surrounding us to destroy our national security. Certainly those of us who have children in the military are constantly concerned with this.

Any rudeness in my responses I ask forgiveness for but I view Bush's re-election as vital to our nation's health.

[Eagle Eye]

This is why the Marine Corps has the motto "every Marine is a rifleman." Put 'em on the trucks and God help the rag-head terrorist who tries to get in their way!!!

The roads were much safer for convoys before the USMC arrived. Since the USMC's arrival, we've pretty much lost control of the roads and convoys run almost exclusively at night in many parts of Iraq.

Back when the MPs and USANG ran escorts, they OWNED the roads.

The USMC rejected all the lessons learned and paid for with blood, since it wasn't Devil Dog blood...and now we all pay the price for their arrogance.

The USMC has a great PR machine. Get up close and you'll really see they don't live up to their Iwo Jima reputation.

Now Taji is in a tough area, they can count on getting hit. But that is standard and contractors run those road unarmed and unarmored, relying on their escorts. If these guys were being ordered to run it without proper escorts and with equipement that is truly deadlined, then there are series problems with the chain of command. But I don't think we have enough info on them yet to lable them one way or another.