Sergeant Benderman: Serving Time for Having a Conscience
Published October 23, 2005
The following e-mails are presented in their original form with the permission of the author, Monica Benderman- wife of Sergeant Kevin Benderman.
The decision to publish them was 
made because no attempt at a narrative was able to capture the matter-of-fact anger of the first e-mail, nor the frustrated anger of the second.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Briefly, Kevin Benderman had served as an army mechanic for 10 years when he developed moral and religious objections to the war in Iraq and, after serving there in 2003, he refused to deploy there again. He filed an application for conscientious objector status on 28 December 2004.
His application was denied and he continued to refuse to serve. Subsequently he was tried and was acquitted of desertion but was convicted of the lesser charge of missing movement, meaning he skipped his Jan. 8 deployment flight. He was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, a loss of pay, and dishonorable discharge at the court martial. He is still in prison.
It should be pointed out that the wheels had fallen off the WMD argument by the time of his trial and that Sec. Rumsfeld said in a little covered DOD Press Conference that but for WMD's, there would have been no war, much to the astonishment of a reporter who asked about "all the other reasons" for the war.
To find out more about Sgt. Benderman, His military record, his writing expressing his reasons for not going back to Iraq after serving there, Sec. Rumsfeld's statement, and/or if the reader wishes to help (with even a simple note of support), sites, links, and an e-mail address are provided below.
One should note the discrepancies for violations (note- 45 days for a Captain convicted of selling much needed body armor on E-Bay vs. 15 months for Sgt. Benderman, etc.) as well as the conditions of the prison.
The first e-mail was in response to a query as to the status of some submitted questions for Sgt. Benderman and when the answers could be anticipated. The second e-mail was in response to a query as to the first e-mail being published. Subsequent e-mails clarified the second as an affirmative response.
Monica Benderman's e-mail on status of Kevin Benderman's responses to submitted questions:
To give you some background into the last 2 weeks - because I don't remember if I have already -
Kevin still has not been in contact with any attorneys. He requested contact with the Trial Defense Services here at Ft. Stewart, as they are still responsible for his post trial procedures, but the prison said that he could not contact them, that he would have to wait for someone from their office to contact Kevin. He has been at Ft. Lewis for 2 months, now, and still nothing, and put the initial request in during the first week he was there.
- Sergeant Benderman: Serving Time for Having a Conscience
- Published: October 23, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Politics
- Writer: AmeriPundit
- AmeriPundit's BC Writer page
- AmeriPundit's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Attn: Dave (I had other priorites during Desert Storm) Nalle;
Since you claim to know what motivates people to do things...was politics the reason GW Bush deserted the Guards his last two years of meetings, or was it because of his lack of moral fiber and his addiction to cocaine?
Actually, it was politics, MCH. He took his leave of absence with what he believed to be permission from his superiors in order to work on a political campaign.
BTW, MCH. Howcome you didn't file as a CO during your 4 years in the navy?
Dave
WRONG, Nalle.
When Bush was permitted to transfer to Dannelly AFB to work on Winton Blount's campaign, his orders, dated Sept. 15, 1972, read: "Lieutenant Bush should report to Lt. Col. William Turnispeed, DCO, to perform equivalent training."
www.cis.net/~coldfeet/doc11.gif
By your own words (and several other officers involved) he didn't show up. So either you're a liar, or you're just ignorant.
No wonder you failed as a history teacher.
Dave, every military person knows orders are orders. You follow them to the letter. That's why they are called orders. George W. knew what he was doing
Yes, MCH, we all know that some claim he didn't report in, while others claim that he did. No one has definitive proof one way or the other that I've seen. And not reporting for training and doing it later isn't exactly the same as desertion by any stretch of the imagination.
As a general rule you're not a deserter unless you get charged and tried as a deserter. Show me the transcripts of Bush's trial and his dishonorable discharge or maybe find something less pointless to do with your time.
But good job, you've derailed another discussion with total irrelevancies.
Dave
Perhaps the point of the post has been missed. Regardless of what one thinks they see in Sgt. Benderman's writings (or project onto them), and taking into account the well-worn "contractual" argument, does it not shock the conscience that our servicemen and women are forced to serve time under these conditions?
More importantly, it is difficult to believe that anyone can overlook the fact that Sgt. Benderman is serving 15 months for refusing a second tour while a Captain who took much-needed Body Armor and converted it for his own profit received only 45 days.
That is a tough one to explain. Especially to the potential widows, widowers, and/or children who may lose a loved one in Iraq as a result of this extremely base, yet easy to identify, war profiteering.
After all, Sgt. Benderman simply refused to participate in any more killing. The Captain who took the Body Armor doesn't seem to care who gets killed- even our own soldiers.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/38385)
Isn't it generally impossible to get CO status in the middle of a war which you've already participated in? He didn't suddenly develop a conscience, he just changed his politics. I read his essay and it's pretty clear that he's motivated more by politics than by pure conscience.
I feel for Benderman and his family, and the prison sounds like it ought to be investigated, but at the same time it sure sounds like he put himself where he is. That said, there really ought to be better ways to handle this sort of situation. What harm would it have done to reassign him to non-combat duties?
Dave