Posted on 03/15/2005 1:11:05 PM PST by danno3150
SHERBORN, Mass. -- A soldier who was court-martialed for desertion after refusing to return to Iraq will be honored Tuesday night by a Massachusetts organization.
The Peace Abbey in Sherborn will present Camilo Mejia with its Courage of Conscience Award.
The former staff sergeant for the Florida National Guard served nearly a year in jail following his conviction by a military jury last spring.
Mejia served seven months in Iraq in 2003, but did not return to his unit after a two-week leave. Five months after he went missing, Mejia surrendered to military authorities at the Hanscom Air Force base.
He said he lost faith in the war and applied for conscientious objector status after seeing the deaths of Iraqi civilians, including a 10-year-old boy.
I've heard of it. Your assessment is on the $$.
They are hippies and safe to ignore.
Sherborn, MA is a community of whiners. If we had to depend on these citizens for our freedom, we would all be wearing chains. Shame on them.
I live near there and have heard of it and plan to far away from that event.
Will John F'in do the honors??
More degradation from a pipsqueak decadent state that has lost all touch with reality. Must have good pot there. I wonder if they realize how immature and childish they look to the red state people?
Info about the "Peace Abbey":
http://www.peaceabbey.org/
http://www.littleindia.com/archive/Jun97/peace.htm
One service they offer:
"Anointing Children as Instruments of Peace
With the guidance of a Peace Chaplain, parents anoint their own children as an “instrument of peace.” Chaplains assist parents in gleaning the essence of all twelve world religions and then help them develop a personal pledge to rear their child in the ways of non-violence, conflict resolution and peace. Each of the faith traditions are included through the praying of Peace Seeds. There is goodness and holiness in all of us, so it is in keeping with the highest calling of parenthood to anoint one's own child an instrument of peace. It is, after all, our sacred duty and greatest privilege to rear our children for peacemaking."
Why do people join the ARMY and then get upset when they see death? Hmmm, ARMY, umm, weapons, wars,etc? This guy joined the army and thought he'd just have to walk around and sweat in BDUs for 20 years and then get his retirement check. When the Army asked him to do what the "real" Army does- it was really hard and ugly and he didn't want to do it anymore. And yes, I was in the Army, sweated in BDUs, and also been in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.(Not Iraq) There are thousands of men and women who serve in our military and don't like seeing the stuff they have to see. Those guys and gals want to come home, too.( Some of them never come home again. )But they don't go awol. Sorry for the rant, my husband is overseas right now and I get MAD when someone gets an award for running away!
Thanks for that bit of info....
It made me hurl, but thanks just the same.
Children who are raised as instruments of Peace will die at the hands of children who are raised as instruments of destruction. Someone please post a picture of a Palestinian Tot Bomb.
That disturbing noise you hear behind you is an impending zot...
In 25 years he'll be the democrat candidate for Pres.
Most of those are IRR personnel, former servicepeople that the military has been unable to contact to reactivate, or people that refused to reactive due to a number of circumstances. But I'm sure you know that. You didn't really think a brigade sized element was missing from the U.S. military, did you?
The fact that this one deserter is being honored by a peace group is not a big deal.
You got that right.
Considering that commercials for the army have always been like "Get an education, be an army of one" (then you see a bunch of soldiers rescuing civilians in some war-torn land) the fact that most of these people think that it's the army who tricked them.
Those commercials are made by Halliburton. They have hypnotic subliminal messages that cause people to forget what they learned in school about what armies do.
(Also, I there's that whole 'stop-loss' thing, which is almost denying their choice AND their CONTRACT to serve.)
It says in everyone's contract that you can be involuntarily extended indefinitely, pending the Secretary of Defense authorization. You have to initial by that paragraph. I still remember doing so, ten years later.
So, all in all, they should be honored for having the courage to run.
No, they're cowards. If they feel moral duty demands they abandon their oaths, then let them say so, and face the music. There is honor in that.
Great response and great tagline
Isn't desertion, just another word for chicken?
The UCMJ allows the death penalty for dozens of crimes, including desertion (and other things like falling asleep as a sentry, refusing to follow a lawful order, etc, etc). But the death penalty is never used right now for anything less than especially heinous murders. This mope could have faced a longer jail sentence, but I think he got some slack for turning himself in to the military.
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