Army officers court martialed, imprisoned for cannibalizing vehicles

[jody]

QUOTE
Clemency plea for Iraq `scroungers` jailed by US forces
A campaign for clemency has been launched for two American army reservist officers who were court martialled and imprisoned after they commandeered and cannibalised abandoned military vehicles to carry out their mission in Iraq.
Major Cathy Kaus and Chief Warrant Officer Darrell Birt were among six reservists found guilty this year of stealing two lorries and two tractor trailers and stripping parts from a five-ton lorry.
The reservists said they needed the vehicles, which they found in the Kuwaiti desert, and parts from the lorry, which they found in Iraq, to carry out their mission to deliver fuel after the invasion in April last year.
UNQUOTE

[BikeWriter]

1. This is crap!

They were completing their mission! Troops have been scrounging forever.

[Lost4words]

2. jailed for parts, totally UNREAL!

Lets see now the soldiers are taking the intuitive to acquire parts on their own in order to effectively perform their missions. I guess their crime was not relaying on commanding officers to send them in harms way with unsafe and unreliable gear.

I think they should get the congressional medal of honor, ops,... already going to Bremer, Tenet, and that other Bozo I cant remember .

Man this country is upside down!

Every wartime movie made has shown soldiers doing this kind of thing with a toung-n-cheek attitude, its expected.

The crime here is that they have to do this to survive, the criminal is *

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[jody]

4. See DU "It's a cluster f***, sir." at the link below.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2824118

[Lost4words]

5. thanks for the link jody (-:

:hi:

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[Karenina]

3. I am absolutely HORRIFIED

That these guys' dastardly pilfering ever raised an eyebrow. :eyes:
Clemency my ass, their convictions should be WIPED OFF THE RECORD and financial restitution paid.

WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE? When will the civilian population of America INSIST its military be withdrawn from Iraq? The price skyrockets with each passing day. But THIS is BEYOND ABSURDITY:

<snip>

"When soldiers came across two lorries and tractor trailers that appeared abandoned they commandeered them.

Three weeks later, in Iraq, they were unable to get spare parts, and they cannibalised a lorry that had been abandoned, he said.

"I think it was a necessity and justified," he said. "I'm not encouraging anyone to do it and take matters into their own hands. There is a process for such matters but if the process doesn't work sometimes you have to take the initiative so the mission can get completed."

He is now unemployed having been fired as a foreman for a haulage company because of his conviction. The company commander, Major Kaus, is still serving her sentence at a navy brig at San Diego.

The vehicles were never reported stolen by their original units. The scrounging saga came to light only at the end of the company's nine-month posting this year when a sergeant who had taken part in the theft of the vehicles reported it to the battalion commander."

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. please please tell me this ain't so..this is as bad as the wounded.....

soldiers being billed for the food recieved while in hospital :puke: oh but Tort-Reform and SS reform and make tax cuts permanant is more important" says bush

[Lost4words]

7. I'd like to know who ratted them out!

what kind of person would turn in their fellow soldier for this?

Some puke-ass MP? Who is the traitor to the troops in this case!

That's the Bush whoring SOB that should be identified to all soldiers.

And the officer that decided to press charges. And that drunk rumsfeld.

the four letter word that comes to mind is FRAG the bastards.

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[opihimoimoi]

8. For the lack of ........INITIATIVE........ LIVEs will be LOST

They are stifling initiative and improvision.... common sense is missing here.

[qs04]

9. Left out of the article is this...

Link

"Instead of taking the trucks back to their rightful owners, the first thing was erasing the identity marks and dumping them off at bases," Wicker said. "They destroyed it. They did the enemy's job. ... Those trucks could be used for other units." ...

"Taking the trucks in my mind was not the worst thing they did," Wicker said from Fort Hood, Texas, where he is now with the Army's 13th Corps Support Command.

[Lost4words]

11. Oh, they should risk their lives to return the abandoned junk?

to the units that left them there? What utter bullshit! Common since has left the house....

No the * administration is doing the enemy's job!

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[qs04]

12. I didn't write the UCMJ.

[imax2268]

10. you see...

this is the kind of shit that I throw back at those stupid repukes when they chant "4 more years"...

they voted for this dipshit administration...so they get what they deserve...

these guys did nothig wrong...their records should be wiped clean...but don't bet on it with this dipshit misadministration running things...

[underpants]

13. One of the guys got fired from Estes trucking too

A local Richmond guy. He was on Fox on Tuesday and on the local news they interviewed him. When he finished serving his 6 months he finally got back to his job and was quickly fired. Estes didn't want to have anything to do with a less than honorable discharge.

[Karenina]

14. Sound like a job for

the local Paying-Attention-Populist Patrol. Do the folks in HIS community think he should financially beheaded for doing the BEST he could to keep American troops up and running? I'm just asking...

[one_true_leroy]

15. you got to war with the trucks you have, not the trucks you find!!

this is demoralizing. that they are getting screwed for pointing out shortcomings in the occupation, then screwed for taking initiative. if they weren't reported stolen, how can they be prosecuted as such. the civilian law has nothing that asinine.