Camp Shelby soldiers refuse training orders
By: SCOTT TYNES, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer October 22, 2004
Three soldiers of the Army National Guard's 155th Infantry Battalion, training at Camp Shelby, were detained and the leadership of their platoon dispersed among other platoons in the battalion following an Oct. 6 incident in which noncommissioned officers of the platoon refused to conduct training, soldiers say.
Two NCOs and a private first class of a scout platoon, based in Natchez, were detained overnight for their alleged roles in what several members of the platoon say was a protest of training conditions at Camp Shelby.
The platoon's noncommissioned officers rebelled with the support of the enlisted men and demanded a meeting with the battalion commander about their grievances, said fellow soldiers from the platoon. The soldiers spoke to The DAILY LEADER on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from the military command. All of the soldiers involved in the incident had been warned not to discuss it with the media. Maj. Greg Michel, executive officer of the 155th, on Wednesday acknowledged the incident but did not give specific details. "The NCOs of that platoon disobeyed a direct order from an officer - their platoon leader - to conduct training," Michel said. "It was a lawful order. There's no excuse for that. Ever." Col. Leon Collins, brigade commander of the 155th Brigade Combat Team, also confirmed the incident without going into specifics, citing an ongoing investigation by the 155th Infantry Battalion commander, Lt. Col. John Rhodes. "It would be premature for me to say anything at all about that situation," Collins said. "It's also a privacy issue for the soldiers. I don't want to give any information out on them that might embarrass them later." Collins did, however, confirm that three soldiers were detained following the incident and that they have returned to the battalion to continue their training. He did not say if they had returned to their platoon or were reassigned. Michel on Wednesday told The DAILY LEADER that the NCOs still had notrejoined their platoon. "The NCOs were separated pending the results of the investigation," Michel said. Following the probe, "a decision will be made whether or not to return those individuals to that platoon." Regarding the detention of the three soldiers, Collins said that was the battalion commander's call. "They were detained because the battalion commander felt that the situation warranted it," he said. "Once the situation was contained, they were brought back to the post." Although Collins and other military officials would not disclose where the soldiers were detained, Forrest County Deputy Mitchell Smith, told The DAILY LEADER the three were confined overnight at the Forrest County Jail. The three soldiers were brought in by the Army on the morning of Oct. 6 and housed overnight, said Smith, who is a jailer at the facility. Jail records did not indicate what they were charged with, citing only that they were there by court order, he said. Several soldiers who spoke with The DAILY LEADER said some of the NCOs have been told they will be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or military law, but they were not aware of the charges. Collins would not say if any of the platoon had been charged with a crime but indicated later there were charges, saying "the preliminary actions are already under way, so we expect a judgment soon." According to soldiers of the scout platoon, the Army has failed to understand the motivation behind the soldiers' refusal to follow orders after they were not given a hot meal that they say they had been promised. "It wasn't about the hot chow," one of the soldiers said. "That was just the final straw in a continuing chain of circumstances. They just decided then that enough was enough." Pay problems, rank and promotion issues and other matters were among the many frustrations faced by members of the platoon, a soldier said. And when the platoon returned from nearly a week in the field to receive their expected hot meal, it was denied, the soldier said. The noncommissioned officers, soldiers said, were simply standing up for their troops. They told their immediate superiors that the chain of command had broken down and demanded to see the battalion commander to voice their concerns. When they were ordered to continue their training, the soldiers said, the platoon refused until they were promised their demands would be met. "The methodology was wrong, but the intent was correct," a soldier said. "Was it a mutiny? No. There were grievances they were trying to reconcile." The same soldier admitted he stood with the platoon's NCOs despite believing their approach was wrong. "Initially, all but one (enlisted man) stood behind the NCOs," he said. "But when (command) issued the ultimatum, two others crossed over. I stood behind them even though I didn't agree with the way they were going about it." He stayed, he said, because the grievances were real and those were the men he would be standing next to in combat when the unit is deployed to Iraq in coming months. "I couldn't betray them," he said. "If I betrayed them now, what would they think I would do in a combat situation with our lives on the line?" There are approximately 27 soldiers in the scout platoon. Another soldier gave a similar description of events. "The chain of command had completely broken down," the second soldier said. "We wanted someone from command to hear our complaints. Once we were assured that would happen, we went on with our training." His reasons for supporting the NCOs were the same as others in the platoon, he said, and he thought the matter was resolved then. "Everything went back to normal, but later that afternoon the sergeant major called us to formation and then called the NCOs out by name for reassignment."
All but two of the platoon's NCOs were reassigned to other platoons, he said. The platoon leader, a lieutenant, was also reassigned despite not participating in the protest, he said. The soldier said the lieutenant was reassigned for allowing the situation to develop. Afterwards, he said, the sergeant major made every soldier in the platoon write a sworn statement of the incident. "Even if the methodology may not have been right," he said, "I don't think you should blame NCOs who are standing up for their troops. Isn't that what they want them to do?" In the meantime, the soldiers said, the Army has assigned to the scout platoon NCOs with no experience in scouting operations. "They're bringing in fillers, NCOs from other units, but they're not MOS qualified," a soldier said. MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty, numbers are used to denote a soldier's chosen or assigned job in a military branch of service. Despite that, they said, "it's training as usual to a degree." But Michel, the executive officer of the 155th, countered the claims that the NCOs brought in to fill the vacant positions were not MOS qualified. The fill-ins were qualified as NCOs, he said, adding that the new platoon sergeant was scout trained and two others were trained for the type of mission the platoon would be conducting in Iraq, which will differ somewhat from what is typically considered a scout mission. The soldiers who spoke to The DAILY LEADER said the enlisted men were not held officially accountable for the incident. "There hasn't been any repercussions so far, but we've been blacklisted," a soldier said. Soldiers in the platoon have been subjected to stares from other soldiers training at Camp Shelby, some who spoke to The DAILY LEADER said. They said they believe the incident will continue to follow them during their careers.
_______________________________________________ Marxism mailing list Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism