Revolt in the ranks in Iraq:Army platoon that refused

[cal04]

The inside story of the Army platoon that refused to carry out a "death sentence" mission.

The details were sketchy, but it appeared that the platoon had refused to deliver a load of fuel to Taji, Iraq, because the soldiers believed their lives were at serious and unnecessary risk. According to the family members' accounts, they were detained at gunpoint by soldiers for more than a day.


But the military denies that the reservists were detained at all. Lt. Col. Dave Rodgers, a spokesman for the 81st Regional Support Readiness Command of the U.S. Army Reserves in Birmingham, Ala., said in an interview Friday that while an investigation into the matter is ongoing, "No soldier has been arrested, charged, confined or detained as a result of this incident." That would be news to many family members, who say their loved ones told them that they'd been confined in a tent at gunpoint and refused permission to use the bathroom without armed escort.

Spc. Amber McClenny, 21, managed to sneak away Wednesday as the detained soldiers were being taken to the mess hall. She phoned her mother in Dothan, Ala. Her daughter's steady but urgent voice on the answering machine jolted Teresa Hill from sleep. Hill saved the message and played it for me Friday afternoon over the telephone.

"Hey, Mom. This is Amber. Real, real big emergency," McClenny said in the recorded message. "I need you to contact someone. I mean, raise pure hell. We had broken down trucks. No armored vehicles. Get somebody on this. I need you now, Mom. I need you so bad. Just please, please help me. It's urgent. They are holding us against our will. We are now prisoners."

much more
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/16/soldiers/index.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. This is probably the first open mutiny in the army

at least the first we know off

[Skittles]

2. our soldiers are being pushed to the breaking point

and the GOP has the utter GALL to paint themselves as "Pro-Military".

[cal04]

3. I just hope the real story comes out and it doesn't get lost like

everything else with this media)


Beverly Dobbs of Vandiver, Ala., also received an anguished phone call Wednesday from her son, Spc. Joseph Dobbs. "Momma, we're in a lot of trouble," he said, according to Dobbs. "We had some contaminated fuel. We went out on this mission, and they turned us back, and our captain got mad and was gonna send us out on another mission. We refused to go because our vehicles were in awful shape. The place they wanted to send us was dangerous. We had to go without guns. All of us refused to go. We're not risking our lives like that."


Before he hung up, Joseph Dobbs told his mother: "They had us in this tent, and they had guns pointed all around us, and the guns were loaded. We're not allowed to go nowhere." The M-16 rifles the guards carried were locked and loaded, another detained soldier told his family, and their bathroom trips were made under armed escort.
Joseph Dobbs is 19 years old. Beverly Dobbs told me: "You see why I'm freaking out? My baby is only 19!"

"If Amber hadn't of snuck out , I wouldn't have known," Teresa Hill said. "They are threatening her with court martial. They were saying eight years in prison."

Amber had once wanted to make her career in the military, her mother said. But after Iraq, Hill doesn't know what her daughter will do. "She was already scared to death of everyone else over there . And now, she's scared of her own people."

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Cou8rt martial

I am not surprised, they know they have to regain good order and discipline FAST... I am not taking the side of the army, just the reality of the army.

God I am reminded of oh... the Italian army in 1916

[bemildred]

6. S'kinda of a problem.

You need to restore command, but you don't want the meme to spread.
In jail you are still alive, and when you don't believe in what you are
doing that becomes a compelling argument.

[skippythwndrdog]

5. I gotta say it

If you're getting shot at and you're shooting back it's wartime. I mention that to avoid the semantics games of whether or not this is a real war.

What about the soldiers put at a greater risk because they didn't get the fuel? G.I. vehicles will almost run on piss and vinegar. They're designed to do that because of the often lack of clean fuel.

Here come the flames but if the troops in fact refused a lawful order a Courts Martial is in order. They knew that military service can be dangerous when they enlisted. The Guard and Reserves are nearly as likely to be put in harm's way as active duty troops because of the active military downsizing. It's not just a part time job when orders come down.

Whether we agree with the U.S. being in Iraq or not, those soldiers owe their fellow soldiers complete loyalty and support. If the report is accurate, I hope they are Courts Martialed, serve time, and get bad paper. There's no excuse. The military is a job that can cause you to die. If you're not prepared to take that risk, don't enlist.

on edit: Pop and Grandpop were in the military. Pop was in Nam, Grandpop flew bombers over Europe in '42 and '43. Grandpop never refused and the 8th Army Air Corpsm which he was in, suffered over 30% casualties in killed, wounded and captured.

[shraby]

7. Yup, and you're gonna get it!

If you notice in this paragraph:

"Beverly Dobbs of Vandiver, Ala., also received an anguished phone call Wednesday from her son, Spc. Joseph Dobbs. "Momma, we're in a lot of trouble," he said, according to Dobbs. "We had some contaminated fuel. We went out on this mission, and they turned us back, and our captain got mad and was gonna send us out on another mission. We refused to go because our vehicles were in awful shape. The place they wanted to send us was dangerous. We had to go without guns. All of us refused to go. We're not risking our lives like that."

Now I ask you...what kind of Army would send their troops out on a dangerous mission without arms???? I think the Army has to answer to this.

[pacalo]

10. You don't get it, do you? This war shouldn't have happened!

[skippythwndrdog]

11. Whether or not the war should have happened is immaterial

as far as the UCMJ is concerned. It doesn't appear as though the proper procedures were followed in the event an order is questioned or refused.

When one is in the military, he's gotta play by the rules.

[soothsayer]

8. They were prolly being made to do halliburton's work. Good for them

for refusing!

[pacalo]

9. I find it extremely hard to respect anyone who would vote for a 2nd term

for this administration. As a mother of two draft-age sons, I'm livid after reading this article!