Posted on 05/04/2007 8:22:51 AM PDT by Lady J USA 1981
Decorated veteran mistaken as deserter for second time 5/4/2007, 1:45 a.m. PDT porwam The Associated Press
GLADSTONE, Ore. (AP) — For a second time, a decorated Iraq war veteran has been mistakenly listed as a deserter — this time costing him a day in jail.
Joe Wolters, 26, of Gladstone was released the Clackamas County Jail on Wednesday after his parents spent the day making frantic phone calls to Army officials, who eventually cleared up the paperwork mistake.
"I was a little mad at the Army," said Wolters, who enlisted in 2002 and spent a year stationed in Iraq as a tank driver, conducting patrols and setting up security checkpoints. He was shot in the leg while helping a buddy find cover during one attack.
His three years of Army service ended in February 2005, when he was honorably discharged with about 10 service medals, according to his discharge form.
His day in jail was the second time that he had been accused of being AWOL — military shorthand for "absent without leave."
He was arrested by Gladstone police on a federal warrant originating from Fort Carson, Colo., where Wolters was based during most of his service.
Police had run across Wolters during an unrelated investigation and learned of the federal warrant when they verified his identification.
Wolters' girlfriend, Crystal Manley, was getting her son ready for kindergarten when the arrest occurred on the front step of the couple's townhouse.
"I heard the clink-clink of the handcuffs and I was like, 'What is going on?'" Manley said.
"This is a mixup. Let me talk to somebody," Wolters said he told police.
But his official discharge paperwork was at his parents' house in Portland. Police told him they were obligated to enforce the federal warrant.
His parents, Doyle and Eileen Wolters, went to an Army recruiting office in Gresham, called U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Fort Carson, and even invited in a TV news crew, Doyle Wolters said.
Officials at Fort Carson eventually faxed paperwork to the Clackamas County Jail and Joe Wolters was released about six hours after his arrest, said Detective Jim Strovink, a sheriff's spokesman.
An Army spokeswoman at Fort Carson said Thursday that Wolters missed some of the procedural steps required as soldiers exit the Army, triggering the mixup.
Wolters thought he had already cleared up the confusion about a year ago, after police knocked on the door at his parents' house early one morning to say they were looking for Wolters on a federal matter.
Stupid Army.
They can’t find wounded soldiers living squalor at Walter Reed but they can help track down this guy.
If he had his discharge papers, what ‘procederal steps’ could he have missed?
Stupid Army. No good at paperwork.
As for tracking him down, it sure doesn't look that way. It looks like they entered his name into a system but nothing more, and local police came across him.
Military paperwork is quite often flawed. In the case of the Walter Reed incident, as I understand no one knew about those patients because the building was closed according to records, thus there shouldn't have been any patients there to be living in squalor.
And a bit of mailice here & there. This guy could easily have ticked somebody in Fart Carson off; it is amazing what can get 'lost' in a sargeant's drawers.
DESK drawers.
“it is amazing what can get ‘lost’ in a sargeant’s drawers.”
Don’t ask, don’t tell. :P
It’s Sergeant with a capital S. It’s a title.
Spell check is your friend.
no it isn’t unless using it to name a person. Seargent Smith is really a seargent.
Fort Carson and Clackamas County Jail owe the veteran compensation for the unjust imprisonment. They should also make a public apology by taking out full page ads in the newspapers here in Colorado and in Oregon. The folks at Carson need to tighten up their procedures. This man’s discharge is not the only thing they have screwed up.
LOL...like that was the first time the police were ever told there was a paper mix-up by someone who had a warrant. It happens but it's the oldest excuse in the book too
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