Posted on 10/15/2004 11:22:24 AM PDT by 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had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren't armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated.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.
(Excerpt) Read more at drudgereport.com ...
You're referring to the difference between an unlawful order ("Kill those orphans!") vs. a tactically unsound order ("Drive through Fallujah completely unarmed!"). The order they got may have been tactically unsound, but it sounded perfectly lawful--you're right, of course, these guys are screwed.
Any idea how Representative Thompson voted on the $87 billion?
If the unsafeness is true, Bush will be blamed. But it's leaders like Kerry who hate the military who are really the culprits.
Yes, but the sergeant who led them in refusing to go was not female. Personally, it seems to me that these little girls were somehow manipulated by him to call home to Mother (and probably to the press) rather than dealing with the problem in the normal way.
Furthermore, the Sergeant who led them is black, which makes it much more difficult to deal with this incident, because you know that the lefties will be focusing on race first and foremost and looking for an excuse to involve it, and that the press is just drooling over a possibility of inflaming things. My prediction: everybody will be handled with kid gloves, but perhaps procedures will be put into place to handle this better the next time it arises (as it surely will, now that it's gotten started).
You are apparently ignorant of the Black Caucus and its socialist Anti=Americans such as Maxine Waters, Sheila-Jackson Lee, Charles Rangel, Mumbles Conyer. And you are apparently equally ignorant of the other DemocRATS who work tireless to destroy the President and obstruct America's security such as Kennedy, Boxer, Feinstein, Edwards, Kerry, Durbin, Levin, Schumer, Clinton.
I realize it takes a lot of work to be this oblivious but you managed to achieve it.
Glad you had the opportunity to get that out . . . A few of us know differently.
I am keen to learn why the platoon NCOs seem to have failed everyone.
a REMF
Well, from just this thread,
here's what's obvious. In one
post, you single out
a congressman as
a "lyin' black." And on your
FR home page you
feel the compulsion
to identify yourself
as a "white" person.
What's obvious is
you're not just an abrasive
loud mouth, you're either
a racist loud mouth,
or you're pretending to be
for its troll effect.
Since when did we stop issuing weapons to the QM folks?
Other members of the Platoon's company (343rd Quartermasters) delivered the fuel with no attacks or casualties. So much for the suicide mission. The 343rd has been in Iraq since March of last year running supplies and has suffered zero loss of life.
Only a dumbass tries to libel someone by bringing irrelevent information about a poster into a thread. If you believe you have discovered something relevent you are greatly deluded. The relevence of the distinguished Congressman's race is that it is consistent with the determined effort among the poverty-pimped welfarists to bring down the President because of this war. It you were less of a dumbass you would have understood that and not gone howling into the wilderness on a wild goose chase.
My characteristics are listed for whomever is interested they have nothing to do with the fact that I am calling the Black Caucus to account for being harmful to American security. That extends to the majority of Blacks I am sorry to say.
There is no greater admirer than I of those Americans who happen to be Black like Keyes, Sowell, Williams, James Earl Jones and others of that small minority who have their heads screwed on right. Nor are there many more knowledgeable and appreciative of Black history and culture than I.
I know a little about this unit. Up until this September I lived 500 yards from this Guard unit - and one of my next door neighbors was attached to this unit and worked at the York County public defenders office or detention center, one or the other. Anyway, he just got back from Iraq from a year's posting, hates Bush, and was rightly ostracized in neighborhood yak-sessions when any kind of politics was debated, which was rarely.
Why did he hate Bush? Because he had to go to Iraq. Well, why did he sign up for Guard duty then? Because he wanted the bennies...and only the bennies. Everybody in the neighborhood saw right through him.
But I'm confident you knew many that earned the description of REMF...
Thank you, truly, for taking the time to explain yourself. I should do the same.
First of all, I misinterpreted what you wrote.
I took your message to mean those of us in the rear with the gear were REMFs who spent all our time and energy in bars and whorehouses. That is not what you wrote. I can see clearly from your original post that is not what you meant. Sorry for thinking otherwise and making a leap I shouldn't have made.
Acknowledged and appreciated...
We were then, and are still, on the same team...
Semper Fi
No apology required. My comment was intended to reflect the troops' complaining about their equipment, nothing more and nothing less. I didn't comment on the "lipstick mutiny" because I thought that aspect of the story was obvious. I see we served during much of the same period, but different branches (I was Air Force, you were Army). Glad to have you on this thread, brother.
Same here.
The last I heard about this incident was on the news Friday night and the commanding officer had requested and received, to be relieved of duty.
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