Update on troops who refused orders in Iraq

The soldiers in Iraq who refused to go on a fuel convoy because of concerns over the safety of their vehicles won a partial victory for other troops who might be put in harm's way, McCook and Butler, the wives of two of the soldiers, said Wednesday. ``The military has already started to work on the vehicles and admitted, yes, the vehicles didn't have armor,'' said McCook. ``It's a partial victory.'' Both Butler and McCook said they had talked to their husbands on Wednesday and both soldiers said they still didn't know what punishment they face.

Yahoo News article

Eighteen soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company, based in Rock Hill, S.C., are under investigation for refusing to drive a fuel convoy from Tallil air base near Nasiriyah to Taji north of Baghdad.

...The company commander of [the] U.S. Army Reserve unit...has been relieved of her duties....

The decision to relieve the commander of the 343rd Quartermaster Company came at her request and is effective immediately...

The commander, whose name is being withheld by the military to protect her privacy, will be reassigned to another position commensurate with her rank and experience, the U.S. military said.

... The soldiers have since returned to duty.

Yahoo News article

And this is most interesting...

The mission was later carried out by other soldiers from the unit, which has at least 120 soldiers, the military said.

The fuel was contaminated. The soldiers who refused to deliver it had just been on a 3-day trip trying to deliver it to another outpost where it was refused, and they had to return with it still in the trucks. As I understand it, the fact that it was contaminated influenced their decision to refuse the order to take it to a post in a more dangerous zone (presumably because that post was more desperate and wouldn't quibble over contaminated fuel, or maybe wouldn't have the leisure to inspect it). So some other soldiers, presumably with better vehicles and more protection (but which included one of the guys who initially refused), pimped contaminated fuel to another military post. Real nice. Our troops are not just fucking over the Iraqis, they're over there screwing each other. Real nice.

[Brig. Gen. James E.] Chambers has called for the 343rd to undergo a two-week "safety maintenance stand-down," during which it will conduct no further missions as the unit's vehicles are inspected. Chambers also said the Army is adding steel armor plating on unarmed vehicles and upgrading maintenance.

Hey, there's an idea. I suppose if the reserve unit hadn't refused to make the run, they would go on using unarmed vehicles.