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Analysis: Clemency Sought For Ohio Troops

"The supply system was broke. From the time we left Kuwait until the time we got into Iraq, it took two months to get the computer codes loaded for supply. So for two months, we couldn't get new supplies, Birt told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. I did what they said. I'm not denying that. But it wasn't for me to have my own truck. It was not for personal gain. It was to put us in the fight, to complete the mission at all costs."
Washington (UPI) Dec 28, 2004
Army Maj. Catherine Kaus spent Christmas Day in the Navy brig in San Diego as she has for past six months, serving a sentence for allowing her Ohio National Guard unit to scavenge three Army trucks so they could keep fuel and helicopter parts moving to troops in Iraq.

Kaus, who was awarded a Bronze Star in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, tried to get more trucks before her unit shipped out from Springfield, Ohio, to Kuwait. Military command couldn't come up with new vehicles for the 656th Transportation Company so when the unit came across two abandoned tractor-trailer rigs and a parts van during a 72-hour stopover in Kuwait, Kaus allegedly told five soldiers to Do what you got to do to make it happen. I just don't want to know about it.

Several weeks later, the unit stripped an abandoned 5-ton truck they found in Iraq for spare parts to keep the other trucks running. Kaus did not report the trucks, which the unit kept for nearly a year, had been taken and falsely identified them as belonging to her company.

Kaus, an Army reservist for 28 years, Chief Warrant Officer Darrell Birt and four other soldiers were court-martialed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the felony of commandeering the trucks, destruction and abandonment of Army property and conspiracy to cover up the thefts. Kaus, 46, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in military prison, fined $5,000 and given a dishonorable discharge.

She told the court-martial judge: I am sorry for what happened. I made some very bad choices. I failed as an officer and I failed as a company commander.

Birt, a 23-year Army veteran, pleaded guilty and received the same punishment. He was ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances, including retirement pay. Brit, 45, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1978 to 1990 and received a Bronze Star while serving in Iraq for demonstrating initiative and courage during the first months of the war in 2003. In civilian life he was a truck mechanic and shop foreman in Springfield, Ohio. He lost that job because of the felony conviction.

The medal citation, authorized before a sergeant in his unit reported the thefts, said his actions proved vital to successful combat operations in Iraq.

Eight other members of the 656th received punishments including fines, pay reduction and loss of rank but no prison time. Birt was released from military prison Oct. 17.

He told ABC News on Christmas Eve and could understand a letter of reprimand, or even loss of rank, but that no one should have been confined for completing their mission.

The supply system was broke. From the time we left Kuwait until the time we got into Iraq, it took two months to get the computer codes loaded for supply. So for two months, we couldn't get new supplies, Birt told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. I did what they said. I'm not denying that. But it wasn't for me to have my own truck. It was not for personal gain. It was to put us in the fight, to complete the mission at all costs.

Kaus plans to return to her home in Dayton Wednesday when she is released from the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in San Diego, but she doesn't know if her civilian job with Huffy Corp. will still be there. A columnist for the Daytona Daily News said people should throw Kaus a parade even through she won't be in her uniform.

At least two U.S. senators think the punishment was too severe for the breach of the military code. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of the multinational force in Iraq, asking him to limit the punishment to time served in the interest of justice and fairness and allow the guardsmen to retire from the military.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., joined calls for clemency in a letter to President George W. Bush three days before Christmas. He said soldiers understand they have to follow the rules, but in matters of life and death, they stood by their fellow soldiers.

The punishment is completely out of step with the violation, Durbin told the Atlanta-based Cox News Service. Soldiers have been scavenging for equipment on battlefields from the time of the Romans to the present day. ... Yes, they made a mistake, but it was not so someone could get rich; these soldiers were trying to protect their unit and accomplish their mission.

Durbin said the 656th had delivered 300,000 gallons of fuel to Tikrit, Iraq, Saddam Hussein's hometown, from Balad Airfield over dangerous roads and over the next year delivered 16 million gallons of fuel in more than 500 missions.

Vehicles driven troops from the 4th Infantry Division who captured Saddam last year were using gasoline delivered by the 656th.

Last week, I went to Paris, Illinois, where I visited with members of the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard, the National Guard unit which has had one of the highest casualty rates in the country, Durbin wrote to the president. I met with solders who suffered mortar attacks and been wounded by improvised explosive devices in the service of their nation. They asked me directly why six of their fellow soldiers from the Ohio National Guard were court-martialed and charged with felonies for securing vehicles and parts in order to fulfill their mission of delivering fuel to the front lines.

Durbin asked how the United States could imprison decorated soldiers for trying to do their jobs and called for a Defense Department investigation on equipment and parts shortages that left the U.S. forces in Iraq short of spare parts.

Other Army units have had to resort to so-called hillbilly armor, fashioning scavenged scrap-metal plates to protect their trucks and Humvees from roadside explosions, and parents and communities have raised tens of thousands to send $1,500 body armor suits and $550 vests that can stop AK-47 rounds to ground troops.

The Army decided Dec. 6 not to court-martial 23 reservists who refused to deliver oil in Iraq because their vehicles lacked armor and were in disrepair.

In an e-mail message to the Daytona Daily News, Kaus said her unit lacked essential equipment when it left Ohio for the Middle East.

Ten vehicles lacked mounts to secure machine guns and grenade launchers and the unit needed another vehicle to carry tools, spare parts, machine guns, protective chemical gear, night-vision goggles, tents, computers and personal belongings.

We were told not having the mounts for the weapons does not stop a company from being deployed, Kaus said in the e-mail exchange. That doesn't give much encouragement to soldiers who have to execute the mission.

Birt said they had to make a choice: go into a combat situation without the supplies needed to support yourself, refuse to go until they got support or find something to move the stuff.

It all belonged to the Army, he said in an interview with the Tribune Review. As far as borrowing, we didn't like it, but we figured when we were done we would bring it back and drop it off.

They did it so their fellow soldiers could serve our nation and have the equipment they needed as they headed into combat. How could this be a crime resulting in prison time, the loss of military benefits and the loss of their civilian jobs when they returned home? Durbin asked.

DeWine said Kaus made a huge mistake in not reporting the theft of military equipment and that she has been held accountable.

She was over there serving her our country, DeWine told the Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn. She made a mistake, but not for self gain or to enrich herself. The mistake she made was made in trying to protect her troops and accomplish her mission.

DeWine spoke with Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dec. 15 in an effort to get Kaus' pension and medical benefits reinstated.

An Army spokesman told the New York Times, An investigation was conducted to sort out the facts of this case. The soldiers were ultimately prosecuted and pleaded guilty. The soldiers were held accountable for their actions.

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Discovery Of Weapons Cache Underscores Iraq Weapons Free-For-All
Fallujah, Iraq (AFP) Nov 25, 2004
The reported discovery of a mosque packed with weapons and a chemicals lab in Fallujah were the latest revelations about an arms haul one US military officer said was enough to take over Iraq. Weapons found in and around the Saad Abi Bin Waqas mosque represented the largest cache discovered by US and Iraqi forces since they launched a massive assault to crush insurgents in Fallujah, the US military said Thursday.



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