Sergeant Benderman: Serving Time for Having a Conscience
Published October 23, 2005
I was to have received official info from Ft. Lewis during his first week there as well. We waited and waited.. I finally complained about that through Amnesty, and appeals were sent to the installation from Sept. 9 - 12th. Interestingly enough - I received a letter 2 days ago, from the Lt. Col. in charge of the correct. facility. The letter was postdated to Aug. 29th, one month after Kevin arrived there, and it said that the letter was to notify me that Kevin was had "safely arrived at Ft. Lewis." Stupid people, they postmarked the letter Sept. 15th, so clearly, the only reason they even sent it was because of the Amnesty appeals. Many of the inmates were amazed to hear that I had gotten a letter. Some of them have been there for 10 months or more, and still their families have received no official notification.
We also had to use Amnesty to appeal for Kevin's right to a civilian chaplain. The warden at the facility called Kevin into his office and told Kevin that he felt that I was pushing for a civilian chaplain, but that he wanted to see if Kevin really wanted one. He told Kevin that he would prefer that Kevin use the prison chaplain. Kevin said he would not. He has been trying since he first got there, to get the prison chaplain to address his concerns over his first CO application and the manner in which it was handled. The prison chaplain told him that he would not help because he didn't agree with Kevin's beliefs — he said that he believed in war.
The prison is an all male facility, but they use female guards. This is a great concern to the inmates. The block guard desk is positioned right in front of the showers. There are no partitions, no shower curtains.. and the toilets are there in the open as well. The female guards watch the inmates taking showers. Big problem, and against Army regs.
There is no heat at the facility. There are only 2 crisis counselors for 225 inmates. There are exposed water and sewer pipes, and the raw sewage leaks from the pipes onto the hallway floors in the living areas of the inmates.
The DOD regs. require 80 sq. ft of living space per inmate, the inmates at Ft. Lewis are given 40 sq. ft.
The DOD regs require 1 shower for every 8 inmates. In Kevin's unit, there are 2 showers for 20 inmates. There is 1 working sink there for 20 inmates, and 2 working toilets.
There is supposed to be rehabilitation classes. Kevin, of all people, is required to take a class in "The Impact of Crimes on Victims." AMAZING!!!!
There are no rehab classes.. the justification is that the war is expensive and they cannot afford to offer them.
- Sergeant Benderman: Serving Time for Having a Conscience
- Published: October 23, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Politics
- Writer: AmeriPundit
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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