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thedrifter
07-23-03, 09:58 AM
Servicemembers speaking out:
A look at the policies, consequences


By Steve Liewer, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, July 22, 2003



As frustration over their lengthening deployment grows among troops in Iraq, soldiers are smacking head-on into limits on their public speech.

Last week, several 3rd Infantry Division soldiers offered pointed criticisms of decisions by their chain of command. One called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Afterward, 3rd ID public affairs officers based at Baghdad International Airport barred a Stars and Stripes reporter from interviewing soldiers on the subject. They said there already has been too much negative publicity on the issue.

The U.S. Central Command’s top officer, Gen. John Abizaid, said July 16 at a Pentagon news briefing that some of the soldiers could be punished for their remarks.

“None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defense or the president of the United States,” Abizaid said. “Whatever action may be taken, whether it’s a verbal reprimand or something more stringent, is up to the commanders on the scene.”

Lt. Col. Nick Balice, a CENTCOM spokesman, said the military’s media policy hasn’t changed.

“[The policy] has always been for servicemembers to be able to speak openly and freely to the media, as long as they speak about issues that fall under their cognizance or level of expertise,” Balice said from CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

“When speaking on issues that are purely personal opinion, as was the case on the [ABC] media program, that was their personal opinion and what is done with that individual is up to the unit commander.”

Free speech has always been a sensitive issue in the military, where divulging secrets may put lives at risk or excessive complaining might undermine discipline in a unit. There are few regulations restricting the First Amendment rights of servicemembers. Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and other directives do forbid officers and enlisted soldiers from speaking contemptuously of a specific group of officials, though the last time a military court prosecuted someone for violating it was in 1965.

Still, action has been taken against some after they have made public comments. Last year, Lt. Col. Steve Butler, a 24-year veteran Air Force officer, was suspended from his senior position at the Defense Language Institute for writing a letter to the Monterey, Calif., newspaper that was critical of President Bush.

Reluctance to speak

The perceived threat of even informal sanctions from their command makes many servicemembers reluctant to speak to the media.

About three dozen people at Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, on Saturday were asked whether they thought those in uniform ought to be able to freely express opinions.

Only three were willing to answer, give their names and allow their photograph to be taken. One soldier who wished to remain anonymous answered, “Of course they should be able to speak their minds, but it’s simply not going to happen.”

Another said: “We’ve been briefed several times before we even got here, to refer all questions from the media to the public affairs office.”

When asked the question, a servicemember in his early 20s, wearing civilian clothes, paused for a long moment and said, “I’m not comfortable telling you what I really think, and I’m not going to lie to you, so it’s better if I just don’t say anything.”

Added another soldier: “C’mon man. People are getting into trouble for talking to the media, and now you want me to answer questions? Yeah, right. …”

But some soldiers in Iraq agree that free speech in the military needs limits.

Loyalty and risk

“We owe a sense of loyalty to senior officials and must trust them to make the right decision based on the information at their disposal,” Master Sgt. Shaun Trescott, 37, of 101st Corps Support Group said via e-mail from Mosul, Iraq.

“No doubt, a soldier will encounter times when he or she feels shortchanged by their leadership, but discipline will compel them to quietly trudge on and focus on the goal ahead.”

For many, the old saying “Loose lips sink ships” has real meaning, especially when they are in a war zone. Knowing lives could be at stake, they say they can tolerate certain restrictions that will help keep secrets or keep discipline in the ranks.

“Everybody knows it is for our protection, and our families,” said Spc. Angel Febus, 22, who is at Balad Air Base, Iraq, with the Germany-based 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment. “You never know who’s around listening [to] the way we make plans and decisions. That’s the best way for the enemy to surprise us with an ambush.”

But other deployed soldiers say restricting their speech betrays the principles they are fighting for in Iraq and elsewhere.

“I find it absurd that these same people we put our lives on the line for can punish us for having our own opinions — which, in effect, is punishing our open-mindedness,” said Spc. Brandon Gullen, 21, of the 864th Engineer Battalion, in an e-mail from Balad. “There should be no restrictions on what we say.”

“As far as freedom of speech, I am 100 percent all for it,” wrote Sgt. William Hudgins, 22, of the Germany-based 3rd Battalion, 58th Aviation Regiment. “I mean, it’s a constitutional right last time I checked.”

One deployed Apache pilot, who gave only his rank and last name, said military and civilian leaders are more than happy to hear praise from the lower echelons. But sometimes, he added, they need to hear unpleasant opinions.

“It’s a fine line, but criticism in and of itself does not undermine discipline,” the pilot wrote in an e-mail from Iraq. “If no one complains, these people will think that we’re all happy down here even though we’ve been yanked around since day one.”

Reporters up close

The Pentagon’s decision to “embed” unescorted journalists with military units during the invasion of Iraq put reporters closer to troops than at any time since the Vietnam War. The public got its most immediate, intimate view of war ever. But soldiers also felt freer than before about talking with reporters.

Many soldiers in the Middle East said they received at least some guidance about handling reporters’ questions.

“We have been encouraged to be forthright and honest with the media but, on the other hand, to abstain from disclosing our personal opinions regarding ongoing operations or political issues and decisions,” Trescott said.

Hudgins said his unit practiced mock interviews with a television reporter.

“We were given about a 15-minute class on what to say if the media asks certain questions,” he said. “But we also had a major in the background giving the slashing-throat motion when we shouldn’t comment.”

Changing plans

Many soldiers in the 3rd ID have said they believe the military’s civilian leadership has broken a string of promises about their homecoming from the war.

The 3rd ID deployed its four brigades — including about 16,500 soldiers — from Fort Stewart, Ga., in late 2002 and early 2003, before almost everyone else, then led the successful assault on Baghdad. They thought they would be going home shortly afterward.

Members of the 3rd ID’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week they have been given, in a matter of just a few weeks, at least three different times they would be going home, only to have their departure delayed.

The most recent promise, they told the paper, came July 7, when the acting chief of staff of the Army, Gen. John Keane, went to Fallujah to congratulate the troops and hand out awards.

Soldiers said Keane told them they would be returning home in a few weeks.

“When a general at that level gives his word, it’s like the word of God,” 1st Sgt. Jose Mercado, 40, a 22-year Army veteran, told ABC.

Last week, the Pentagon added to the confusion when Rumsfeld’s office and 3rd ID commander Maj. Gen. Buford Blount issued differing schedules for the division’s homecoming. Abizaid said at his press briefing the 3rd ID would be “home by September, certainly out of Iraq by September, and they’ll be moving toward home in September.”

He qualified that, though, by saying that replacements would need to be in place before the division could return to Georgia.

The delays in getting their spouses home clearly has upset some Army family members.

“This saying one thing and backing out of it, all it does is breed distrust,” Michelle Brock, wife of a 3rd ID soldier, told ABC News. “It’s going to be really hard to trust anything that the military tells us again.”

The griping of spouses drew a public rebuke from Anita Blount, wife of 3rd ID commander Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, in the Fort Stewart base newspaper, CNN reported.

“We have the right to be disappointed, and it is understandable if we are angry,” Blount wrote in an open letter to the community. “I know that many of you believe you should embark on a campaign to raise awareness of the need for [the 3rd Infantry] to return. We need to be aware of a possible outcome of our outcries that could backfire on us directly.

“When the Iraqis see media coverage of disgruntled Americans publicly campaigning for the return of our soldiers from Iraq, they are encouraged and believe their strategy is working,” she said.

continued...........

thedrifter
07-23-03, 09:58 AM
Appropriate answers

Third ID soldiers in Fallujah said they have received no orders preventing them from speaking to the press, or even guidance concerning what should and should not be said. Several soldiers, in fact, seemed puzzled by the question.

In Baghdad, Staff Sgt. Mark Ingham, a spokesman for Combined Task Force 7, the U.S. forces in Iraq, said that deployed soldiers have not been instructed to decline media interviews as a result of the 3rd ID flap.

Soldiers also have not been issued recent guidance on appropriate comments to the media, he said.

“Nothing has been put out officially,” Ingham said.

With the Baghdad summer getting hotter, the patience of soldiers and their families with the troops’ unexpectedly long and dangerous peacekeeping mission is stretching thinner.

“Frankly, I am sick and tired of hearing Pentagon officials, generals, politicians, and people at the Defense Department continue to say that the morale of the troops is still high, when every single person knows full well that it isn’t,” Erica Herrera of Illesheim, Germany, whose husband is an Apache Longbow pilot with the 6/6 Cavalry at Balad, said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

“Now we are looking at possibly almost a year away without our husbands, friends and fathers. The country is in a sad state of affairs when you could go work at McDonald’s and get treated better than someone who is out defending the liberties and freedoms of our country.”

“It’s time,” said Gullen, of the 864th Engineer Battalion, “someone hears what the soldiers have to say about all this mess.”

Contributing to this report: Kent Harris in Baghdad, Iraq; Lisa Burgess in Fallujah, Iraq; Sandra Jontz in Washington, D.C.; Ray Conway at Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany and The Associated Press.


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=16649


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

yellowwing
07-23-03, 11:39 AM
No special instruction on the matter? It's called the UCMJ!

I should know, I was on the wrong end of a few office hours. It took me awhile to figure out that it wan't personal. My COs and NCOs were entrusted to maintain unit discipline.

What's the Army going to do next, loosen up on the General Orders interpretation? "To Quit my post only when properly relieved, or when I get too tired. To Talk to no one except in the line of duty, or if she's really cute."

jryanjack
07-23-03, 01:09 PM
You don't hear anything about Marine units whinning! I always thought that the army was slack, but this is way beyond my definition of slack. Of course it sucks being told that you're going home only to have the word change, happens to Marines all the time. What did they think this was a 9-5 job with an hour lunch?

Super Dave
07-23-03, 01:43 PM
Any person in the military KNOWS not to bad-mouth anyone up the chain of command "on the record" much less the President and Sec of Defense. What kind of a total IDIOT would do that..oh yea..some Army pukes....

Sgt Sostand
07-23-03, 03:52 PM
Ya your correct Super Dave some things you just keep to your self . i think those Army Guys need to be busted down

Super Dave
07-23-03, 04:11 PM
If any of them had a desire to make the Army a career...whoops it's GONE!!

GunsUp
07-23-03, 04:20 PM
I'm with you there... Notice that most of the whining is done by support and aviation personnel, people who (besides Marines) who don't have much of a clue of what long deployments and extensive training exercises are like. I don't want to hear from some Johnny-Air Force type or Danny desk-ranger about how hard they have it being deployed. Try spending 9 months in the desert, living in tents with a bunch of raunchy grunts (I love you guys!) and be lucky to have had about six real showers during that time, living in MOPP suits and then, maybe, you can complain.

As to the young sergeant and spec.4 who were exclaiming their Constitutional rights were being suppressed by not being able to complain to the press and the world, did they forget that the military is not a democracy where they enjoy all the rights and freedoms of the people they are protecting (before 1960, troops could not vote in elections). Another thing, these people don't need to be airing their dirty laundry to the rest of the world.

Hmmm... Maybe they should review their situation when it comes time to re-up.

Besides this is a war, not an episode of CSI where everything gets all wrapped nice and neatly in an hour.

My two cents worth...

Devildogg4ever
07-23-03, 05:06 PM
Well I can see once again everyone has about covered it!
Alot of times I wonder if the Army changing the way it has through the years is a factor in all this cry baby attitude!
Like what was already stated, every military person knows what the deal is, but when it comes down to it, they figure their different and can change it.

The reason Marines don't do it, we are taught to suck it up!
That is why we are Marines!

Osotogary
07-23-03, 05:51 PM
..to add this cartoon. After all, it is about security..kinda.
Gary

richgitz
07-23-03, 06:47 PM
I agree with everyone who posted. In todays world the computer
has a lot to do with the way people act and react to things. every-
thing is done quickly. Hell you can Bank, shop, buy a car, even get
medicial advice, just like that. So when you get tired of all the crap
you shut it off. Then you here freedom of speech, what about the
prayer in schools, or the pledge of alliegance. You can't say GOD
in schools, so what are they Bitc**** about. ( BE ALL YOU CAN BE). Does this make sense to anyone.

MillRatUSMC
07-23-03, 07:48 PM
It's a "ARMY OF ONE" thing.
The UCMJ and the civil code deal with all this.
Some could come under sedation, possibly treason.
For trying to undermine the discpline of the unit they're part of.
Some say that they're a "volunteer" Army...
And that they should just "suck it up".
They being the DOD had to rotate some units out of Iraq.
Dued to the military be stretch so thin.
Liberia will place a heavy burden on this thin military.
We now come to be "PEACEKEEPERS" of the entire world.
Sad state of affairs.
But as Tony Blair said "You're in the position and you will just have to carry on.
He was talking about our position of leadership.
So the "ARMY OF ONE" will just have to carry on!

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

PS, There's still Marine units there in Iraq, yet you don't hear the whine like the "ARMY OF ONE".
Must be the training.

"No Better Friend, No worst enemy"— it's your choice,"
~ Maj. Gen. James Mattis ~
Commander of the 1st Marine Division

greensideout
07-23-03, 08:51 PM
I think that what we are seeing is the fruition of the idea that serving in the military is a job. A job like in the real world.
The Army has been selling this idea for a long time. The reserve unit members are told, "It's the best part time job in America."
The squad leader has been reduced to a "First line supervisor", the CO is the "manager" of the unit. I'm not makeing this up!
The expectations of the troops is more like their everyday job. When things don't make them happy they begin to cry about their "rights" and "this is not fair to ME."
I believe that the draft, for many reasons works better then the Volunteer Army and I think we are seeing one reason why.

lurchenstein
07-24-03, 01:25 AM
I hate to see some of the Army of One showing their arses like this (believe a majority of their troops in Iraq are professionals). However, makes me even prouder that our Marines aren't griping to the press "When the going gets tough". (You all covered it well, just throwing in a few thoughts.)

richgitz
07-24-03, 07:49 PM
Yea! Before you know it the U.S. Army will have a union. Get some
work rules, pay raises, 8 hour shifts, over time pay. Lets get some
of those Gang Bangers, they like to fight, and shoot people. The
Army is a bunch of F***in cry babies. I say hang them for not use
ing the chain of command. Who trained these people. May-be
they can take their Old Ladies next time so they won't have any=
thing to B***h about.:yes: :marine:

GySgtRet
07-24-03, 08:04 PM
As a self respecting Gunnery Sargeant of Marines I would never alowwed my Marines to speak of anybody in the ehelons of governtment or command in a negative context. If I did it would have gone far above the platoon level, I would have been on the carpet. If there are any self respecting Sargeants First Class any more they know what I am talking about, or are they just E7's? Whinning and B***Hing happens, but when the discipline breaks down people will get killed they become sloppy, maybe that is why so many are dying in Iraq even though the major fighting is over? Or is it? Gurilla warfare is something that may have been forgotten about. It appears that is what is going on. The resistance to our presents is breaking down the ARMY OF ONE'S MORALE?

SUCK IT UP...!!!!

The Title "MARINE" Is EARNED...NEVER Given

greensideout
07-24-03, 08:54 PM
LMAO at richgitz's comments. Too funny Marine!!

richgitz
07-25-03, 06:59 PM
Hey! greensideout
I can get alot funnier if I have a few Beers. I'm usually Introvert-
ed. But BEER brings the best out of me. I try be be broad mind-
ed, but some things I read, gets me going. SEMPER-FI to all my
GREEN BROTHERS out there.

garryh123
07-25-03, 07:24 PM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMM! BEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!

GunsUp
07-25-03, 07:56 PM
Shoot... It's Friday, why not! I'm heading over to the slop chute to pound down a few and toast one for the doggies for the housecleaning of the Hussein Bros! Let them rot!



"It's better to give than receive... Especially if we're talkin' Naval gunfire!"