BAGHDAD, Iraq -The company commander of a U.S. Army Reserve unit whose soldiers refused to deliver fuel along a dangerous route in Iraq has been relieved of her duties, the U.S. military said yesterday.
The decision to relieve the commander of the 343rd Quartermaster Company came at her request and is effective immediately, according to a statement from the 13th Corps Support Command. It was authorized by Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers.
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 mission was later carried out by other soldiers from the unit, which has at least 120 soldiers, the military said.
The soldiers have told their families they balked at the mission last week because the vehicles were unarmored and in poor condition. They said complaints to their commander about concerns went unheeded.
Military convoys are often the target of insurgent attacks in Iraq. The unit delivers food, water and fuel on trucks in combat zones.
The soldiers have since returned to duty.
The U.S. military has downplayed the incident, calling it an isolated incident not indicative of wider U.S. Army morale or maintenance problems.
However, 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.
John Coates, the father of one of the soldiers involved, said the reservists refused to carry out the operation only after another military outpost rejected the fuel they were to deliver.
Spc. Major Coates, a water treatment specialist, contacted The Charlotte Observer about a report published yesterday to say his father was wrong when he said soldiers banded together in refusing the order.
We did not form a group on the decision we made Coates said. Everyone made their own individual decision to do what we thought best.
If soldiers acted as a group in what the military considers a mutiny, they could receive a more severe punishment than if they acted individually.
Families of several of the soldiers have said the men would not have taken such drastic action without compelling reasons.
17
Archives
The Associated Press
