US Army struggles with soldier who won't pull the trigger

[Sapphire Blue]

US Army struggles with soldier who won't pull the trigger

Is the decision not to fight conscience or cowardice?

By Mary Wiltenburg | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 14, 2007 edition


~ excerpt ~

Her husband, Army Spc. Agustín Aguayo, hurried around their military base apartment in central Germany that afternoon, under orders to assemble his battle gear. Two-and-a-half years earlier, in February 2004, the medic had applied to leave the Army as a conscientious objector (CO), someone whose beliefs forbid him to participate in war. While his claim was being evaluated, Aguayo served a year in Iraq with an unloaded weapon; when the claim was rejected, he sued for another review.

That legal process was under way on Sept. 1, 2006, the afternoon Aguayo's unit assembled to begin its second Iraq tour. Unwilling to deploy, Aguayo took an officer's advice and stayed home so as not to "make people very upset on a very stressful day." That evening, his commander, Capt. R.J. Torres, called Helga, saying Aguayo would be punished unless he appeared.

Aguayo did not show up before his comrades left that night. The next morning he turned himself in to the military police, prepared to serve prison time for "missing movement." Instead, Captain Torres ordered him taken to Iraq by force. The two sergeants drove him home to get his gear.

"I needed to show that I was ready to do anything except hurt people" rather than return to war, Aguayo says. So, as the men sat in his living room, he stuffed jeans and a T-shirt into a plastic shopping bag, opened a first-floor bedroom window, took out the screen, and jumped.

(snip)

Since boot camp in 2003, Aguayo had felt at odds with his military mission. Now his mission was just to keep moving. A civilian friend gave him a ride to the train station. Aguayo traveled to Munich, where he stayed with an antiwar activist. German and American peace activists passed the hat and bought plane tickets. The Mexican Consulate issued the naturalized US citizen a passport in less than an hour. Aguayo flew to Mexico, met his father-in-law at the US border, and rode home with him to Palmdale, Calif. On Sept. 26, 2006, he turned himself in at Fort Irwin, Calif.

(snip)

Last October, Aguayo was returned in handcuffs to the US Army stockade at Coleman Barracks in Mannheim, Germany...

(snip)

While in prison, his conscientious objection suit was rejected...

(snip)

The twins leaned into Helga as Judge R. Peter Masterton read his verdict: "Of all charges and specifications, guilty."

(snip)

Judge Masterton gave Aguayo an eight-month sentence (with six already served, he had only a few weeks of confinement); awarded him a bad conduct discharge; and ordered that he forfeit all his rank, pay, and benefits. By April, Aguayo was released and sent to his old base here in Schweinfurt. The sergeants from whom he'd escaped avoided him. Other soldiers sought him out to offer sympathy and solidarity.

In May, Aguayo returned to Palmdale, Calif., to his wife and girls and an uncertain future...


http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p20s01-usmi.html

[flashl]

1. This is powerful

The Vietnam war's civilian and military protesters brought it to an end. The military protesters were key to the ending the Vietnam war.

[tridim]

2. That would be me if I somehow ended up in the Army

I can't even squish a spider let alone kill a man.

[druidity33]

3. wow, strong stuff

CSMonitor is one of the best publications out there right now...
i wonder how many more of these stories there are? Aguayo can't be the only one...

Keep up the good work SB.

K&R

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. Yes they are impartial

even though connected with the Christian Science church in Boston, unlike the Washington Times.

I remember when the young lady that worked for the Christian Science Monitor was kidnapped and her captors decided she must be a Christian just because she worked for a paper with that word in the title. There were some freeps that thought she was a missionary too.

:banghead:

[babylonsister]

4. Here's a story about a man who did pull the trigger and now regrets it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=300746