Soldiers Saw Refusing Order as Their Last Stand
By Neela Banerjee and Ariel Hart
The New York Times
Monday 18 October 2004
JACKSON, Miss. - What does it take for a man like Staff Sgt. Michael Butler, a 24-year veteran of
the Army and the Reserve who was a soldier in the first Persian Gulf war and a reserve called up to
fight in the current war in Iraq, to risk everything by disobeying a direct order in wartime?
On the morning of Oct. 13, the military says, Sergeant Butler and most of his platoon, some 18 men
and women from the 343rd Quartermaster Company, refused to deliver a shipment of fuel from the Tallil
Air Base near Nasiriya, Iraq, to another base much farther north.
The Army has begun an inquiry, and the soldiers could face disciplinary measures, including possible
courts-martial. But Jackie Butler, Sergeant Butler's wife, and her family in Jackson say he would not
have jeopardized his career and his freedom for something impulsive or unimportant.
The soldiers, many of whom have called home this weekend, said their trucks were unsafe and
lacked a proper armed escort, problems that have plagued them since they went to Iraq nine months
ago, their relatives said. The time had come for them, for her husband, to act, Ms. Butler said.
"I'm proud that he said 'no,' " Ms. Butler said. "They had complained and complained for months to
the chain of command about the equipment and trucks. But nothing was done, so I think he felt he had
to take a stand."
Other soldiers completed the mission the platoon turned down, the military kept functioning, and the
Army has cast the incident as isolated.
But as the soldiers involved in the refusal in Tallil and others begin to speak out, it is growing more
apparent that the military has yet to solve the lack of training, parts and equipment that has riddled the
military operation in Iraq from the outset, especially among National Guard and Reserve units.
Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commander of the 13th Corps Support Command, which the 343rd
reports to, said at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday that he had ordered two investigations
into the incident and the concerns expressed by the 18 soldiers "regarding maintenance and safety.''
General Chambers said preliminary findings showed that the unit's trucks were not yet armored and
were among the last in his command to get such protection, because they usually functioned in less
dangerous parts of Iraq. None of the trucks in his command were armored when they arrived in Iraq,
General Chambers said. He told reporters that he had ordered a safety and maintenance review of all
trucks in the 343rd.
"Based on results of this investigation other actions may be necessary,'' the general said, but he
added, "It's too early in the investigation to speculate on charges or other disciplinary actions.''
General Chambers described the episode as "a single event that is confined to a small group of
individuals.''
A number of Army officers contacted in recent days said such an apparent act of insubordination was
very unusual, particularly among such a large number of soldiers in a single unit and especially since
the military is all volunteer.
The incident has prompted widespread interest among military families who have complained in
months past of inadequate equipment and protection for their soldiers.
Nancy Lessin, a leader of Military Families Speak Out, which opposes the war, said she had been
flooded with calls and e-mail from families with a simple message: What had happened to the
reservists echoed the conditions their own soldiers experienced in Iraq: a shortage of armored vehicles,
especially for part-time soldiers' units; convoy missions through dangerous stretches without adequate
firepower; and constant breakdowns among old vehicles owned, especially, by National Guard and
reservist units.
"This is absolutely striking a nerve," Ms. Lessin said. "People are saying, 'This is the same thing that
happened to my son,' and if the Army tries to spin this as 'just a few bad apples,' people need to know
that these are common problems and what these soldiers did required a tremendous amount of
courage."
Nothing seems to separate the men and women who defied their command in Tallil from the tens of
thousands of others now in Iraq, their families say. The 343rd was drawn mainly from Southern states
like the Carolinas, Alabama and Mississippi, and the military said Friday that the 343rd had performed
honorably during its tour in Iraq.
The soldiers in the platoon are described as devoted to the military and unabashedly patriotic. A wall
of Sergeant Butler's living room is covered with certificates and citations from the Army. Another
member of the 343rd, Specialist Joe Dobbs, 19, of Vandiver, Ala., had his bedroom painted the dark
blue of the American flag. And another soldier in the unit, Sgt. Justin Rogers of Louisville, Ky., liked to
walk around town in his uniform when he was home on leave, said Chris Helm, a 14-year-old high
school student and his first cousin.
When Sergeant Rogers went home for a two-week leave in July, his brother Derrick asked whether
the war and all the deaths were worth it. "His answer was simple," Derrick Rogers said. "He said, 'If I
didn't feel like it was worth it, I wouldn't be there.' ''
Ms. Butler did not want to speak for her husband on his feelings about the war. Better he should do
that when he is finally home, she said, which is scheduled to be sometime next year. But Sergeant
Butler knew he would be called up, once the war against Iraq was begun in March 2003. Late last
year, he reported to Rock Hill, and quickly, his confidence was shaken, his wife said. He saw that the
equipment to be shipped with his unit was "not very good," Ms. Butler said.
Once the unit arrived in Iraq, the inadequacy of the platoon's equipment and preparedness was
thrown into sharp relief against the dangers the country posed. Although the unit is based near
Nasiriya in the Shiite-controlled south, which is not as volatile as Sunni-dominated areas, the whole
country has been convulsed by battles and uprisings during most of the 343rd's tour of duty. "This is
not the first time that there has been a problem with these charges and stuff, with them not having
armor, not having radios," said Beverly Dobbs, mother of Specialist Dobbs. "My son told me two
months ago - he called me, he said, 'Mom I got the scare of my life.'
"'I said what's wrong?'" Ms. Dobbs said. "He said, 'They sent us out, we come under fire, our own
people was shooting and we didn't even have radios to let them know.' They're sending them out
without the equipment they need. I don't care what the Army says."
Families that spoke to the soldiers this weekend received slightly differing accounts of what
happened the morning of Oct. 13. They all said, however, that fuel the soldiers had to deliver was
unusable because it had been contaminated with a second liquid. They all said the soldiers were under
armed guard. General Chambers denied both assertions. Relatives say that Sergeant Butler, Sgt.
Larry McCook of Jackson and Specialist Scott Shealey of Graysville, Ala., have been identified as
three of five "ringleaders" of the incident and reassigned to other units on the air base. Specialist
Shealey's parents said their son said in a telephone call that he was going to be discharged.
"He'll be home in three to four weeks, that's what he's being told," said Ricky Shealey, Specialist
Shealey's father, a retired Postal Service supervisor and former sergeant in the Army. "He's
depressed," Mr. Shealey said. "He just can't believe it's happening."
Ms. Butler said her husband did not know what he might be facing and had heard nothing about a
discharge. Other families said the military had yet to contact them to explain the situation. The
families have not hired lawyers yet, in large part because they are uncertain what charges might be
brought against their relatives.
Some families are reaching out to one another through e-mail and phone calls, offering help and
discussing strategy. They have contacted their members of Congressmen. Others, like Ms. Dobbs and
her family, are glued to television news, awaiting some clarification of the incident.
Ms. Butler has her big family to lean on, and on this Sunday, the day after the phone call from her
husband, they went to church and turned to their neighbors, friends and faith. Ms. Butler went to the
altar rail of Zion Travelers Missionary Baptist Church and told the congregation: "My husband has been
in the Army more than 20 years, but refused to take those men in that convoy. He said it would be
suicidal.''
"So, I'm going to ask you to pray for me," she said, "because he is not going to take no other men's
children into the land of death."
She bowed her head, and so did everyone else. "Lord, Sister Butler needs you," the Rev. Daniel
Watkins said, shutting his eyes tight. "Her husband, he needs you. All the soldiers in Iraq, they need
you."
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Monica Davey contributed reporting from Chicago for this article, and Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Dexter
Filkins from Baghdad.
Go to Original
U.S. Mutiny Soldiers Say Army Ignored Complaints
By Sue Pleming
Reuters
Monday 18 October 2004
WASHINGTON - U.S. soldiers who staged a mutiny and refused to go on a convoy in Iraq (news -
web sites) felt commanders ignored their plight when they complained about the safety and condition
of their vehicles, their relatives said on Monday.
Ricky Shealey, father of one of 18 soldiers who face discipline for refusing an order to go on a convoy
last week, said his son's commanders dismissed complaints they were being asked to transport
contaminated fuel in broken-down trucks.
"The command just totally ignored them when they told them this fuel was contaminated and they
were still gonna send them out on this mission with contaminated fuel. They were completely aware of
this situation and I believe it's a command issue, not a soldier issue," Shealey told CBS' "Early Show."
Refusal to obey orders, especially in a combat zone, is a serious military offense.
Anxious to squash any suspicion of U.S. troop morale or discipline problems in Iraq, the Army said
on Sunday it was investigating the "isolated incident" and preliminary findings indicated the soldiers
were worried about maintenance and safety.
Last year, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, complained to the Pentagon
(news - web sites) his supply situation was so poor it threatened the Army's ability to fight, said an
official document revealed by The Washington Post on Monday.
Army officials said most of Sanchez's concerns had been addressed and they were keeping a close
eye on the situation.
Civilian and military convoys in Iraq, where more than 1,000 U.S. troops have died and thousands
have been wounded since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, are frequent targets for roadside
bombings and other ambushes.
Frantic Call
The 18 soldiers refused to accompany fuel tankers on a supply run from southeastern Iraq to
Baghdad on Wednesday, arguing the fuel was contaminated and their unarmored vehicles were in bad
shape.
The tankers had previously been carrying jet fuel and had not been cleaned before the new cargo of
diesel fuel was loaded, said Teresa Hill, who received a frantic telephone message from her daughter
Spec. Amber McClenny.
"Hi mom, this is Amber. This is a real, real big emergency. I need you to contact someone, I mean
raise pure hell. We yesterday refused to go on a convoy. ... We had broken down trucks, non-armored
vehicles and we were carrying contaminated fuel," said McClenny in the message aired on U.S.
networks on Monday.
Hill told NBC's "Today" show her daughter referred to the convoy as a suicide mission.
"She felt like the Army was just leaving them out there to drown," said Hill, who said her daughter
feared the contaminated fuel might be put in a helicopter that could ultimately crash and add to the
U.S. death toll in Iraq.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" show, Johnny Coates said his son complained in
one instance his truck broke down four times on the way to delivering fuel.
Like other relatives, Coates called his son a good soldier who felt he had to take a stand. "I think he
did the right thing. He lived to talk about it for one more day."
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