Resistance

It looks like there is a growing resistance to the war within the ranks. These brave souls should get our utmost support.


The New York Times
Former G.I.'s, Ordered to War, Fight Not to Go
November 16, 2004
By MONICA DAVEY

The Army has encountered resistance from more than 2,000
former soldiers it has ordered back to military work,
complicating its efforts to fill gaps in the regular troops.
Many of these former soldiers - some of whom say they have
not trained, held a gun, worn a uniform or even gone for a
jog in years - object to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan
now, after they thought they were through with life on
active duty.
They are seeking exemptions, filing court cases or simply
failing to report for duty, moves that will be watched
closely by approximately 110,000 other members of the
Individual Ready Reserve, a corps of soldiers who are no
longer on active duty but still are eligible for call-up.
In the last few months, the Army has sent notices to more
than 4,000 former soldiers informing them that they must
return to active duty, but more than 1,800 of them have
already requested exemptions or delays, many of which are
still being considered.
And, of about 2,500 who were due to arrive on military
bases for refresher training by Nov. 7, 733 had not shown
up.
Army officials say the call-up is proceeding at rates they
anticipated, and they are trying to fill needed jobs with
former soldiers as they did in the Persian Gulf war of
1991.
Still, the resistance puts further strain on a military
that has summoned reserve troops in numbers not seen since
World War II and forced thousands of soldiers in Iraq to
postpone their departures when their enlistment obligations
ended.
Tensions are flaring between the Army and some of its
veterans, who say they are surprised and confused about
their obligations and unsure where to turn.
"I consider myself a civilian," said Rick Howell, a major
from Tuscaloosa, Ala., who said he thought he had left the
Army behind in 1997 after more than a decade flying
helicopters. "I've done my time. I've got a brand new baby
and a wife, and I haven't touched the controls of an
aircraft in seven years. I'm 47 years old. How could they
be calling me? How could they even want me?"
Some former soldiers acknowledge that the Army has every
right to call them back, but argue that their personal
circumstances - illness, single parenthood, financial woes
- make going overseas impossible now.
Others say they do not believe they are eligible to be
returned to active duty because, they contend, they already
finished the obligations they signed up for when they
joined the military. A handful of such former soldiers,
scattered across the country, have filed lawsuits making
that claim in federal courts.
These former soldiers are not among the part-time soldiers
- reservists and National Guard members - who receive
paychecks and train on weekends, and who have been called
up in large numbers over the last three years.
Instead, these are members of the Individual Ready Reserve,
a pool of former soldiers seldom ordered back to work.
Ordinarily, these former soldiers do not get military pay,
nor do they train. They receive points toward a military
retirement and an address form to update once a year.
When soldiers enlist, they typically agree to an eight-year
commitment to the Army but often are allowed to end active
duty sooner. Some of them join the Reserves or National
Guard to complete their commitment; others finish their
time in the Individual Ready Reserve.
For officers, the commitment does not expire unless they
formally resign their commissions in writing, a detail some
insist they did not know and were not told when they signed
their contracts, although Army officials strongly dispute
that.
Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the Army, said
people in the service are well aware of the provision. "We
all know about it," Colonel Hart said.
She said problems with the call-ups of former soldiers have
involved a relatively small number of people, are being
worked out, and are hardly unique to this conflict. In the
first gulf war, she said, more than 20,000 former soldiers
were called up. With medical problems and no-shows, only
about 14,400 were actually deployed, she said.
Most of the deployments in the first gulf war lasted 120
days, the Army said. The current call-ups are more likely
to last a year.
Of those seeking exemptions now, the Army is studying each
person's case individually, Colonel Hart said, and has no
set rule on what allows a person to avoid deployment. Army
officials are still weighing more than half of the
requests. So far, only 3 percent of requests for exemptions
have been turned down, while 45 percent have been approved.
As for the former soldiers who failed to appear at bases by
their assigned dates, the Army is trying to reach them, one
by one, to discuss their circumstances, Colonel Hart said.
In late September, some Army officials suggested that they
would pursue harsher punishments - declaring people AWOL
and possibly pursuing military charges - but the Army has
since taken a quieter, more conciliatory approach.
"These are challenging times in their lives," Colonel Hart
said, adding that some former soldiers who failed to report
might have moved and not received the Army's notice. "We're
contacting them as best as possible."
For the rest, though, some questions linger over who really
qualifies for the callback.
Colette Parrish said she burst into tears the evening that
her husband, Todd, walked into their house in Cary, N.C.,
with a letter from the Army calling him back to service.
"We had no idea this could happen," she said. "We hadn't
been preparing for any of it because we thought it wasn't
possible."
At first, Mr. Parrish, 31, said he was convinced that the
letter was just an administrative error because he believed
that his time in the Individual Ready Reserve had ended.
He had gone to college on an R.O.T.C. scholarship, then
served four years as a field artillery officer. He said he
resigned his commission after that, became an engineer, and
still owed the Army four years in the Individual Ready
Reserve to complete his total obligation.
To Mr. Parrish, who has filed a lawsuit against the Army in
federal court in North Carolina, that obligation ended on
Dec. 19, 2003. But the Army apparently does not agree, and
says that it never accepted Mr. Parrish's resignation as an
officer.
As the court fight has continued, Mr. Parrish's date to
report to Fort Sill, Okla., has been pushed back, again and
again, one month at a time. Instead of thinking about
long-term plans, for his wife and their future family, he
is living in 30-day increments.
He said he always looked back on his service years fondly,
and with a deep sense of patriotism.
"I guess I feel disillusioned now," he said. "This isn't
about being for or against the war. It's not about
Democrats or Republicans. It's just a contract, and I don't
think this is right. If they need more people, shouldn't
they get them the right way? How many more like me are
there?"
Mark Waple, Mr. Parrish's lawyer, said he had received
calls from 30 other former soldiers in recent months, all
of whom had heard of Mr. Parrish's case and had similar
stories.
At least two other former soldiers have filed suit over the
question.
In Hawaii, David Miyasato, a former enlisted soldier who
served in the first gulf war, said he would never go AWOL;
he would have gone to Iraq, he said, if need be.
But Mr. Miyasato also said that his eight-year commitment
ended nearly a decade ago. After he received his letter
calling him back to service, he said, he called the Army
repeatedly to argue that he was not eligible. Finally, he
said, with his date to report to a base in South Carolina
just days away, he contacted a lawyer and filed suit on
Nov. 5.
"This was actually my last resort," said Mr. Miyasato, a
former truck driver and fuel hauler who said that, at 34,
he led an entirely different life, with an 8-month-old
daughter and a window-tinting company to run. "I had been
calling around everywhere for help."
On Nov. 10, Mr. Miyasato said, he learned that the Army had
rescinded his orders.
In New York, Jay Ferriola, a former captain in the Army,
filed a suit saying he had resigned his officer's
commission in June and no longer qualified for call-up in
the Individual Ready Reserve. On Nov. 5, the Army rescinded
his orders and honorably discharged him.
"This shows that the system works," Colonel Hart said. "If
the soldiers bring their situations to our attention, we're
going to do what's right."
Barry Slotnick, Mr. Ferriola's lawyer, said he wondered how
many other soldiers might be in similar positions, but
without the money, the contacts or the certainty to sue.
Mr. Slotnick said he had received numerous calls from
others since he filed Mr. Ferriola's case in late October.
"We might as well add another phone bank," Mr. Slotnick
said. "What I can see is that there are many, many cases of
people being called up that shouldn't have been. This is a
backdoor draft. I also have to wonder how many are already
in Iraq who shouldn't be there, who just didn't think to
question it."
The Army's current plan is to fill 4,400 jobs through March
from among 5,600 former soldiers ordered to duty. But an
Army official said last month that more former soldiers,
perhap in similar numbers, might be called on later next
year, aswell.
For now, those being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan are being
asked to handle a variety of support positions, including
truck drivers and fuel and food suppliers.
Months ago, the Army said some of the former soldiers would
be needed to play the French horn, the clarinet, the
euphonium, the saxophone and the electric bass as part of
the military's bands, but the notion drew criticism from
members of Congress who questioned the need to order people
to give up their civilian lives to play instruments.
Colonel Hart said the Army has since filled the musician
jobs with volunteers.
Before going to Iraq, former soldiers are receiving as many
days of training as they need, an Army spokesman said. Some
of the soldiers said they were worried, though, about the
prospect and safety of trying to get up to speed in a few
months.
"These guys like me are basically untrained civilians now,"
said Mr. Howell, the former helicopter test pilot. Mr.
Howell said he left the Army years ago with an injured
back, knee and elbow, leaving him wondering about his own
physical condition.
"I don't even have a uniform anymore," he said. "But they
don't have any more reserves left, so we're it. All they
want is some bodies to go to Iraq, just someone to be
there, to sit on the ground."
When he left the military in 1997 as part of a reduction in
forces, Mr. Howell said, he saw a note in the "little
print" in his annuity agreement about a future commitment.
But he said he was told that his obligation to the
Individual Ready Reserve would be brief and meant little
anyway. "They said it was just a way of having me on the
books," he said.
After that, Mr. Howell said, he jumped into the civilian
world. He got married. He and his new wife began building a
house. They struggled to have children.
In September, his first child, Clayton, was born. Just
before that, his orders arrived.
"It does rip my heart out that these young men and women
are over there, and there is part of me that wants to be
with them," he said recently. "But I have responsibilities
here now."
Mr. Howell said he had applied to the Army for an exemption
but was recently turned down. If he loses his appeal, he
will be given a new reporting date. His best hope, he said,
is that his appeal is buried somewhere at the very bottom
of a big stack of them.