West Point Grad Wins Objector Status

[Ghost in the Machine]

West Point Grad Wins Objector Status
Published: 10/16/07, 7:46 PM EDT

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) - A West Point graduate who cited his religious beliefs in a lawsuit against the Army while serving in Iraq has been granted conscientious objector status and given an honorable discharge.

Capt. Peter Brown, a 2004 graduate and member of the 10th Mountain Division, said his religious convictions prevented him from carrying a loaded weapon or ordering his men to use lethal force.

"I'm relieved the Army recognized that my religious beliefs made it impossible for me to serve as a soldier," Brown said in a news release issued Tuesday through the American Civil Liberties Union, which had intervened and filed a lawsuit on his behalf in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Brown was stationed in Baghdad for more than a year with the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment out of Fort Drum in northern New York. His conversion to a pacifist interpretation of the Bible began after his commission into the Army when he attended a civilian religious center in the Netherlands in 2004, the lawsuit said.

While in Iraq, Brown applied for discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector. Though a chaplain appointed by the Army and an investigating officer both concluded that he was sincere and recommended an honorable discharge, the Army disagreed and denied his request.

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7814&eeid=5469808&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=0&ck=&ch=ne

[cloudbase]

1. Another likely SAGAW member

Service Academy Graduates Against the War.