"Ya, know, back in Dubya-Dubya Two, when you went on a "suicide mission", you were expected to get killed!!!"
Posted on 10/16/2004 4:41:52 PM PDT by TexKat
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The grandfather of an Army Reserve soldier whose platoon refused to deliver supplies in Iraq said his grandson told him Saturday that he and other soldiers had been detained by military authorities but were later released. Meanwhile, military officials said commanders reassigned five members of the unit.
Some in the platoon had told relatives they refused to deliver tainted helicopter fuel in poorly maintained vehicles by traveling a dangerous supply route without an armed escort.
The Army is investigating up to 19 members of the platoon, which is part of the 343rd Quartermaster Company based in Rock Hill, S.C. The unit delivers food, water and fuel on trucks in combat zones. A criminal inquiry was expected.
Harold Casey said his grandson, Justin Rogers, 22, called him Saturday to tell him that he and other soldiers were put under armed guard after refusing to deliver the supplies.
"The fuel was contaminated for the helicopters," Casey said his grandson told him. "It would have caused them to crash. ... They saved lives."
Maj. Richard W. Spiegel, spokesman for the 13th Corps Support Command & Logistic Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, denied that the soldiers were detained. He said the soldiers were simply told to remain in the unit's area until an investigating officer contacted them.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he filed a congressional inquiry on Friday and was told by a military liaison that the soldiers were detained but not arrested. The unit has at least two members from Mississippi.
Casey, in a telephone interview from his Louisville home, said his grandson told him that some of the soldiers already had been reduced in rank.
He said Rogers' rank had been reduced from sergeant to specialist and that he and another soldier, Sgt. Larry McCook of Jackson, Miss., were being transferred to the Alabama-based 2101 Transportation Company.
McCook's wife, Patricia McCook, said her husband called Friday and said the soldiers had been released after being detained. She told The Clarion Ledger of Jackson that her husband said five members were reassigned because "they said these five really instigated the entire process."
A coalition spokesman in Baghdad said "a small number of the soldiers involved chose to express their concerns in an inappropriate manner, causing a temporary breakdown in discipline."
Military officials said the commanding general of the 13th Corps Support Command, Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, had appointed his deputy, Col. Darrell Roll, to investigate and a team under Roll's command was questioning soldiers about the incident.
On Wednesday, 19 members of the platoon did not show up for a scheduled 7 a.m. meeting in Tallil, in southeastern Iraq, to prepare for the fuel convoy's departure a few hours later, a military statement said.
The mission was carried out by other soldiers from the 343rd, which has at least 120 soldiers, the military said.
A commanding general has since ordered the 343rd to undergo a "safety-maintenance stand down," during which it will conduct no further missions as the unit's vehicles are inspected, the military said.
The platoon has troops from Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi and South Carolina.
In the mean time Fox reported that the mission they refused was carried out uneventfully by another unit. They didn't come under any fire, and did not have an armed escort.
This does not look well for those kids, and the whiny call from that twerp to here mother asking for mom to raise hell was just another reason women do not belong in the military.
(donning flame proof suit...)
I am a woman, and I agree. No flaming from me.
Couldn't help thinking the same thing myself when I heard it. Imagine, calling home and whining to mom from a war zone. What hath Belle wrought?
Hey, reduction in rank is better than dead.
The army probably will, and should, discipline the enlisted men involved. You can't allow a mutiny to go unanswered.
Then they should quietly go after the officers who were going to send them into ambush alley unescorted. Maybe they should be ordered to escort the convoys themselves, and they will learn a new appreciation for armed escort.
Quote: "Then they should quietly go after the officers who were going to send them into ambush alley unescorted."
Maybe you missed the report on Fox that another unit did the mission for them that same day, without escort, and did not report ANY contact with enemy.
It would seem the commanders know thing or two more than the reservists.
Guess the little brat will be writing a book about the nasty Army.
ps, my husband was a Master Sergeant in the Army Reserve.
No flames.
Good report - thanks.
Wimmim! Stay home, until they come to your door.
Then waste'em.
Well, I'm not going to flame you but I know a woman in the marines who is doing a wonderful job. There are many. I'm not comfortable with women in combat, though, but even there I'm sure there are many who excel.
Or from me.
"Ya, know, back in Dubya-Dubya Two, when you went on a "suicide mission", you were expected to get killed!!!"
they don't make men like they used to.
BTW, I re-read the article. Where is a woman mentioned, other than some guy's wife? Did I miss it? Not being sarcastic, just wondered.
Seems to me somebody believed the troops about the potential risks. We can guess a couple of newly arrived Captains may end up reassigned somewhere else. The enlisted personnel will probably not be punished further although non-judicial punishment will remind them that there are channels of command to be followed FIRST next time this happens.
Last thing any decent General is ever going to do is encourage the EM to stay shut-up about maintenance failures.
The real issue here is why there were officers who thought it was OK to deviate from established procedures with faulty vehicles.
Maybe. I saw that. What isn't clear to me is how long the guardsmen involved have been in the war zone, to be able to judge how well they knew what they were talking about.
The tension between officers and enlisted men is not new, and low level near-mutinies are not unusual, its how enlisted men get their commanders attention sometimes.
I've been concerned myself about the lack of armed escort. This convoy wasn't hit, but others certainly are.
From my point of view, I have been disturbed about the lack of security for civilian workers there. I assumed at the beginning that guys going over to aid in reconstruction would be a high priority for army protection, but it seems that their companies have total responsibility for security, and the army does not consider itself responsible.
So the companies hire a few ex-soldiers to ride shotgun, and of course thats the first vehicle hit.
The engineers who were killed recently had arab guards. When your guards are arabs living out in the neighborhood, unprotected, they are themselves vulnerable. Even if they are inclined to be loyal, its too easy to visit them at home, and tell them not to go to work tomorrow.
Thats apparently what happened. They stopped showing up for work, and the engineers themselves told their colleagues they thought they were next. Why they didn't just camp out at their workplace, I'll never know, the decision to go home anyway cost them their heads.
Anyway, I wouldn't mind going if I am on the army's priority list, I wouldn't mind running the same risks alongside them, but I have qualms about going if they do not intend to protect me at all.
Article didn't mention, but Fox was playing the tape of the phone call one of these twerps left on her mother's phone recorder.
It was very un-professional sounding.
Transportation folks should be at least smart enough to believe the experts, eh?!
So did the new unit deliver the tainted helicopter fuel?
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