Soldiers say they were told to re-enlist or face deployment to Iraq

[orthogonal]

By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
September 16, 2004

COLORADO SPRINGS - Soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit say they have been issued an ultimatum - re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq.

. . . .

"They said if you refuse to re-enlist with the 3rd Brigade, we'll send you down to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can stay with them, or we'll send you to Korea, or to Fort Riley (in Kansas) where they're going to Iraq," said one of the soldiers, a sergeant.

The second soldier, an enlisted man who was interviewed separately, essentially echoed that view.

"They told us if we don't re-enlist, then we'd have to be reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you're getting out, you're not," he said.

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3185596,00.html

[meti57b]

1. This is not a "volunteer" military.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I can't believe this hasn't gotten picked up by the national media yet.

[skooooo]

3. Lou Dobbs covered it on CNN

Saw it last night.

[Pirate Smile]

5. Good. Thanks.

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. Yes, and all Grange could say was

"Wow."

Lou pushed him further and asked "Would you say that this is inappropriate?" You could just tell the guy wanted to say it's a lie...it must be! But he didn't, surprisingly. Instead he asserted it must have been an isolated incident (paraphrase).

Yes, General. So was Abu Graib.

[skooooo]

7. Yes...to explain for those who didn't see it..

Grange is a general (I believe) with whom Dobbs was conversing about this. Lou confronted him about it and asked if this was "fair" or "right" or something. Grange said it seemed inappropriate.

If I have any of the facts wrong, someone please correct. It was late at night when I saw it.

[BootinUp]

4. This is the arm-behind-the-back draft.

outrage!

[Norman_Bates_Sr]

9. Arm Twisting Re-enlistment

I agree JOHN fought for the US, not as "others" portray him. The soldiers who brought this to light are brave. It was only a few of them in one combat unit, so they had to be brave. Takes spirit to say they weren't going to re-enlist. They are brave, becasue they are now going to go to Afghanistan.:hippie: :hippie: :hippie:

This is my first post so it wasn't easy, either.

[calimary]

11. Welcome to DU!

Good job - hopefully you'll come to feel that it DOES get easier.

[hadrons]

8. If any of these guys vote for Bush, I can't feel sorry for them ....

its cruel, but true

[Nashyra]

10. That I have to agree with

I think they should say they want to serve like the Commander in Chief and get sent to a unit that is not sent overseas

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Yuo think Bush has the military vote in a bag

I have a bridge to sell you, a HUGE bridge.

[leesa]

13. Well, they may, because their vote can EASILY be rigged

It wouldn't surprise me at all if a huge percetage of the military vote was for Bush, but I would not believe that to be anything but fraud.
They are trapped.

[moondust]

15. Delete.

[Khaotic]

14. Glad I Went On Sabbatical

I really had no beef with the military as a whole, but due to the way we went into Iraq, the fact the SecDef pushed the max call up time from 12 to 18 months, the fact he wants to outsource more than 300,000 active duty billets to the private industry, and just the way that DoD has used and abused the reserves, made me come to the decision not to reenlist.

I served my country in the military for 11 years. 5 1/2 active, 5 1/2 reserve.

I had no beef w/ my branch, no problem with my immediate superior officers, and no problem with the reserves as a whole. But when my CO asked me what he could do for me to stay, I told him to get a new Secretary of Defense.

I didn't really ponder that this kind of thing would come up, but I'm not surprised.

The way that DoD is using the reserves is terrible.

Kerry has stated on numerous occasions that he would NOT use the reserves like they have been used.

What would he do? He would bring the active duty levels back up to where they were.

The active duty can NOT expect the reserve to be able to shadow them.

What the Bush Administration wants is to have its cake and eat it too.

It would like to have lots of $$$ for weapons and equipment, take DOWN the active duty numbers to decrease the # of federal checks cut, but abuse the reserves and use them only when they really need them.

You see ... they want to be able to use the military like you do a box of ceral. To be able to take it down and pour a bowl when they need it, not when they don't.

Sure that would save money, but how the hell is a reservist supposed to operate like that?

How many employers would hire a person that is getting scooped up all the time by the reserves.

It's not fair to the reservists and it's not not fair to the companies that hire the reservists.

Those are details that DoD doesn't seem to care about. Trival details that girlie men cry about right?

Do your duty! No questions!

Well ... the contracts eventually expire, and stoploss can't last forever.

More and more troops are getting the point when it comes to reelistment ... they're walking away.

Why? Why? What can we do to keep you in?

When it comes down to it you'll hear the same response.

"All I know is ... I'm not reenlisting ... happy trails m*ther f*cker."

If Kerry's elected and things get straightened out I might go back, but there's going to have to be some tremendous changes in the way DoD uses the reserves.

If Bush gets reselected ... well, I'll I have to say the sky's the limit.

Why be part of a military when Democracy has become Fascism.

Of all people, Benito Mussolini called it right: "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."

When you have a corporate muppet like Bush as a president how can anything but Fascism take hold.

America will cease to be the America we've grown up loving.

The answer? Move or fight.

Which are you willing to do?

[gasperc]

16. what about the poor souls IN Iraq

is there any hope of them getting rotated out??

I get the re-up issue but what of the guys getting shot at today??

[Qanisqineq]

17. also discussed here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=831541&mesg_id=831541

and here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=823395

and originally posted by me before it was picked up by the media
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2351879

[johnnie]

18. Someone called this in on the local radio show

I thought she might have been mistaken.
If bush gets the military votes, I'll be amazed. Of course the next thing will be, if you don't vote for bush you are going to Iraq for 4 years.

[Khaotic]

19. Pass This Info to ...

Pass this information about "reenlist or face deployment" to www.veteransforamerica.com

This group is laying it down straight.

More veterans and active duty troops should be exposed to the content of this site.

If you haven't visited it then check it out.

www.veteransforamerica.com

[eriffle]

20. This isn't new

This was happening before the Iraq war. In about November of 2002 my brother in-law had until June before he was done with his reserve obligation. He was to the point where he didn't even have to go the one weekend a month. They called them all in for a meeting and said, re-up or you *could* get sent to Iraq with a combat unit. These were Army reserve engineers. He took a gamble hoping that they wouldn't call him up until June and didn't re-up but a lot of people did. Well, they did get called to Iraq, he went with them and was gone a total of 13 months. A lot of the men in his unit are anti-Bush because of two reasons. First, lack of WMD, and second they just sat at a base from July until January. They felt as though they were just warm bodies and were there because of political reasons so Bush wouldn't look bad by doing a troop rotation, needing more combat personel, etc. If the military begins to turn against him in WV, which has had a huge call up of our reserves and national guard, WV is going to Kerry.

[Career Prole]

21. SHRUB! Complete your contractual obligation to the National Guard

or face transfer to Iraq! (Jeebus, that felt good!):)

[kwolf68]

22. And here is what is missing

Back when Japan invaded us in World War II, our world was in the throws of imperialist and totalitarian expansion with the USA earmarked for colonization.

Our nation saw the threat and we didn’t have to force soldiers to serve…Men went, they volunteered. They dutifully gave their lives, because they knew the TRUTH. If the threat was even near as great as it was then, we’d have no problems getting soldiers. In fact, we’d probably be turning some away.

When a war is a pure f***** lie, its hard to inspire men to give their lives for that lie.