By Gregg Zoroya,
USA TODAY
October 3, 2005
Seventy-three
soldiers in a special reserve program have defied orders to appear
for wartime duty, some for more than a year, yet the Army has
quietly chosen not to act against them.
"We just
continue to work with them, reminding them of their duty," says Lt.
Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman.
The soldiers
are part of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a pool of about
110,000 inactive troops who still have contractual obligations to
the military but are rarely summoned back to active duty. But an
Army stretched thin by the demands of war in Iraq and Afghanistan
began a phased call-up of 6,545 of those soldiers in June 2004.
About half have
served. About one-fifth have been excused for reasons such as
finances, family or health.
The Army has
failed to reach 386 of the reservists, often because of invalid or
outdated addresses or phone numbers. But Lt. Col. Karla Brischke,
who supervises call-ups, says some reservists may simply be avoiding
the orders.
Only one
officer is among the 73 soldiers who either ignored their orders or
refused to serve. Brischke says Army staffers keep calling and
reminding them of "duty, honor, country" and their need to fulfill
their obligations.
Hilferty says
the Army hasn't acted in part because IRR troops have historically
not been expected to serve. "It's sensitive because we understand
they're different soldiers."
The decision to
declare these soldiers AWOL or a deserter is up to their commanding
officer, Brig. Gen. Rhett Hernandez, the Army's personnel management
director. He could not be reached for comment.
Failing to
punish those who disobey an order "sets a bad precedent, especially
for those in the IRR who have accepted the call to serve," says
retired major general John Meyer Jr., the Army's former chief of
public affairs.
The behavior
may be reinforced by peace activist groups operating the GI Rights
Hotline, which keeps reservists informed about the Army's failure to
act. "What we tell them is that right now, the Army is not doing
anything to pursue IRR call-ups," hotline counselor Dawn Blanken
says.
Army
regulations state that a soldier who doesn't report for duty is
usually declared absent without leave, or AWOL, and ultimately
accused of desertion. Punishments can range from counseling to a
less-than-honorable discharge. During war, the maximum punishment
for desertion is death, a sentence last carried out in 1945.
The Army's
failure to act sends the wrong message, says Mike Belter, an IRR
lieutenant colonel called up last year.
"I didn't think
at 48 I was going to be in a war zone," Belter says. "I could have
said no. But it was what we signed up for, what we volunteered for
in the first place, a sense of service to country."
