thedrifter
12-22-06, 06:37 AM
Paratrooper who went AWOL to be released
December 22,2006
Joe Miller
A Fort Bragg paratrooper charged with unauthorized absence for the military after serving in Iraq will be released from the Camp Lejeune brig on Saturday.
Former Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing of Sumner, Wash., was sentenced to three months confinement during an October court-martial. Many people are anxiously awaiting his release, and there will be a special ceremony in Raleigh to mark the occasion.
Clousing, who served with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, was an Army interrogator in Iraq. It was there his supporters say he witnessed the horrors of war.
“He was made aware of a lot of the abuses that were going on to the Iraqis and to the detainees,” said Mia Austin-Scoggins, media director of the Fayetteville Peace Group.
The Associated Press reported that Clousing said he witnessed a U.S. soldier kill an innocent Iraqi in Mosul, but unit leaders ignored his account, saying he was inexperienced.
“He began to question the validity of the insurgency behind some of those people who were taken captive,” said Dave Taylor of Beaufort, a member of Veterans for Peace.
Clousing left Fort Bragg in June 2005 after returning from Iraq and was classified as U.A. or unauthorized absence. He turned himself in 14 months later at Fort Lewis, Wash.
Because of his guilty plea in October, Clousing also was demoted to private, lost two-thirds of his military pay for three months and received a bad conduct discharge.
At the time of his court-martial, a Seattle attorney told The Associated Press that Clousing had no regrets for going U.A.
After his release Saturday, Clousing will stop for his first breakfast as a free man at Bojangles. He will then travel to Raleigh for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans memorial at the state capitol.
He also plans to return home to Washington on Saturday afternoon.
“He is very articulate and expressed to me that this is a transition for him from being one who was in prison and was being visited to someone that was going to be outside of prison and doing what he could to help the guys that are in there,” Austin-Scoggins said.
Contact staff writer Joe Miller at jmiller@freedomenc.com or at 353-1171, ext. 236.
Ellie
December 22,2006
Joe Miller
A Fort Bragg paratrooper charged with unauthorized absence for the military after serving in Iraq will be released from the Camp Lejeune brig on Saturday.
Former Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing of Sumner, Wash., was sentenced to three months confinement during an October court-martial. Many people are anxiously awaiting his release, and there will be a special ceremony in Raleigh to mark the occasion.
Clousing, who served with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, was an Army interrogator in Iraq. It was there his supporters say he witnessed the horrors of war.
“He was made aware of a lot of the abuses that were going on to the Iraqis and to the detainees,” said Mia Austin-Scoggins, media director of the Fayetteville Peace Group.
The Associated Press reported that Clousing said he witnessed a U.S. soldier kill an innocent Iraqi in Mosul, but unit leaders ignored his account, saying he was inexperienced.
“He began to question the validity of the insurgency behind some of those people who were taken captive,” said Dave Taylor of Beaufort, a member of Veterans for Peace.
Clousing left Fort Bragg in June 2005 after returning from Iraq and was classified as U.A. or unauthorized absence. He turned himself in 14 months later at Fort Lewis, Wash.
Because of his guilty plea in October, Clousing also was demoted to private, lost two-thirds of his military pay for three months and received a bad conduct discharge.
At the time of his court-martial, a Seattle attorney told The Associated Press that Clousing had no regrets for going U.A.
After his release Saturday, Clousing will stop for his first breakfast as a free man at Bojangles. He will then travel to Raleigh for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans memorial at the state capitol.
He also plans to return home to Washington on Saturday afternoon.
“He is very articulate and expressed to me that this is a transition for him from being one who was in prison and was being visited to someone that was going to be outside of prison and doing what he could to help the guys that are in there,” Austin-Scoggins said.
Contact staff writer Joe Miller at jmiller@freedomenc.com or at 353-1171, ext. 236.
Ellie