XPost: ny.politics, nj.politics, ca.politics
XPost: alt.politics.democrats
From: N0NE@N0NE.C0M
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 17:06:28 GMT, Obwon wrote:
>
> 843 ex-soldiers fail to report for Army duty
>
>WASHINGTON (AP) --
>More than 800 former soldiers have failed to
>comply with Army orders to get back in
>uniform and report for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan,
>the Army said Friday. That is more than one-third
>of the total who were told to report to a mobilization
>station by October 17.
>
>Three weeks ago the number stood at 622 amid
>talk that any who refused to report for duty could
>be declared Absent Without Leave. Refusing to
>report for duty normally would lead to AWOL
>charges, but the Army is going out of its way to
>resolve these cases as quietly as possible.
>
>In all, 4,166 members of the Individual Ready
>Reserve have received mobilization orders
>since July 6, of which 2,288 were to have
>reported by October 17. The others are to
>report in coming weeks and months.
>
>Of those due to have reported by now, 1,445
>have done so, but 843 have neither reported
>nor asked for a delay or exemption. That
>no-show rate of 37 percent is roughly in line
>with the one-third rate the Army had forecast
>when it began the mobilization to fill positions
>in regular and Reserve units. By comparison,
>the no-show total of 622 three weeks ago
>equated to a 35 percent rate.
>
>Of the 843, the Army has had follow-up contact
>with 383 and is seeking to resolve their cases,
>according to figures made public Friday. For
>the 460 others, "We are still working to
>establish positive contact," the Army said.
>Some may not have received the mailed
>orders.
>
>Members of the Individual Ready Reserve, or
>IRR, are rarely called to active duty. The last
>time was 1990, when nearly 20,000 were
>mobilized.
>
>IRR members are people who were honorably
>discharged after finishing their active-duty tours,
>usually four to six years, but remained in the
>IRR for the rest of the eight-year commitment
>they made when they joined the Army. They
>are separate from the reserve troops who are
>more routinely mobilized -- the National Guard
>and Reserve.
>
>The Army anticipated, based on past experience,
>that about one-third of the IRR people it called
>up would be disqualified for medical or other
>reasons. The trend so far bears that out.
>
>The Marine Corps, meanwhile, said Friday
>that a Marine killed in western Iraq earlier
>this week, Sgt. Douglas E. Bascom, 25, of
>Colorado Springs, Colorado, was a member
>of the Individual Ready Reserve. He was the
>first IRR Marine to die in Iraq, according to
>Gunnery Sgt. Kristine Scharber, a
>spokeswoman at Marine Corps headquarters
>in the Pentagon.
>
>There are about 400 IRR Marines deployed
>in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Shane
>Darbonne, a spokesman for the Marine Corps
>Mobilization Command.
>
>Army officials said they were uncertain
>whether any of their Individual Ready
>Reserve members have been killed in
>Iraq.
>
>That the Army has had to reach so deeply
>into its store of reserve soldiers is a measure
>of the strain the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns
>have put on the active-duty Army. When the
>American invading force toppled Baghdad in
>April 2003, the Army thought it would be
>sending most of its soldiers home within
>months. Instead, it has kept 100,000 or more
>there ever since.
>
>While the number of IRR Army soldiers who
>have failed to comply with their mobilization
>order has increased this month, so has the
>number who have asked for a delay or to be
>excused from serving.
>
>The number who have requested delays or
>exemptions has grown from 1,498 (out of
>a total of 3,899 mobilization orders) in late
>September to 1,671 (out of a total of 4,166
>orders) as of October 17. A little over one-third
>of the requests have been acted on, with 584
>approved and 21 denied.
>
>The Army said some withdrew their requests
>even after they had been approved. It did not
>say how many.
>---
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
