From: Fred Martin (mung@in-touch.net)
Date: Thu Dec 16 2004 - 05:56:40 PST
As I recall, this is military justice...take one case and make a
horrible example of him/her/them and say "see what they got", "now you
better shape up or ship out!" And prosecute the ones who don't need it
and let the crooks walk. You guys seeing anything different from when we
were in the military? Fred Martin
Mil-Veh Co. wrote:
>COLUMBUS, Ohio - At a time when some U.S. troops in
>Iraq are complaining they have to scrounge for
>equipment, six Ohio-based reservists were
>court-martialed for taking Army vehicles abandoned in
>Kuwait by other units so they could carry out their
>own unit's mission to Iraq.
>
>The soldiers say they needed the vehicles, and parts
>stripped from one, to deliver fuel to Iraq. Members of
>the 656th Transportation Company based in Springfield,
>west of Columbus, said they needed the equipment to
>deliver fuel that was needed by U.S. forces in Iraq
>for everything from helicopters to tanks.
>
>The reservists took two tractor-trailers and stripped
>parts from a five-ton truck that had been abandoned in
>Kuwait by other units that had already moved into
>Iraq, one of the reservists, Darrell Birt of Columbus,
>told The Associated Press on Sunday.
>
>Birt, a former chief warrant officer, and the others
>were charged with theft, destruction of Army property
>and conspiracy to cover up their crimes. Birt said he
>and two others pleaded guilty and the other three were
>convicted. All received six-month sentences.
>
>"Nobody ever reported these trucks stolen. The deal
>was, when you are moving, if it was going to take more
>than 30 minutes to fix it, you left it," said Birt,
>who was released in November. A lot of people felt
>Birt deserved a medal, not a prison sentence.
>
>In contrast to lowering the boom on these poor guys
>who were only trying to do their job, the military
>said it would not court-martial any of 23 other Army
>reservists who refused a "direct order" in a combat
>zone to transport much needed fuel to resupply
>fighting elements.
>
>
>
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