----- Original Message ----- From: Newsroom-l To: NEWSROOM-L at LISTS.NETSPACE.ORG Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 9:01 AM Subject: [NEWSROOM-L] Army Reserve platoon arrested for refusing "suicide" mission
<http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041015/NEWS01/410150366/1002>
Platoon defies orders in Iraq
# Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns
By Jeremy Hudson jehudson at clarionledger.com
[Excerpts]
A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
The platoon being held has troops from Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi and South Carolina, said Teresa Hill of Dothan, Ala., whose daughter Amber McClenny is among those being detained.
The platoon is normally escorted by armed Humvees and helicopters, but did not have that support Wednesday, McClenny told her mother.
"They knew there was a 99 percent chance they were going to get ambushed or fired at," Hill said her daughter told her. "They would have had no way to fight back."
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