Active Duty

Top Army Leaders forced to take action after YouTube video from Fort Bragg Soldier's Father causes nationwide outcry over poor barracks conditions

By Matthew Cox - Army Times

The Army has cut $248 million from other programs to make immediate fixes to barracks at eight installations across the country.

The move follows an Armywide barracks inspection ordered after the father of an 82nd Airborne Division soldier posted a video on YouTube that showed peeling paint, mold and a bathroom drain plugged with what appeared to be sewage in the barracks that paratroopers from the Fort Bragg, N.C., unit were housed in after returning from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan.  read more »

By THOM SHANKER, New York Times

WASHINGTON — Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond.

Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.  read more »

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press March 24, 2008

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on
Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in
the five-year war to at least 4,000. The grim milestone came on a day
when at least 61 people were killed across the country.

Rockets
and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the
fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite
extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.  read more »

By HELEN O'NEILL, AP Special Correspondent Mar 23, 2008

A young, ambitious immigrant from Guatemala who dreamed of becoming an architect. A Nigerian medic. A soldier from China
who boasted he would one day become an American general. An Indian
native whose headstone displays the first Khanda, emblem of the Sikh  read more »

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan has led Democratic inquiries into contracting abuses in Iraq.

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.  read more »

Silenced in the Barracks
By Jessica Pupovac - In These Times

When military sexual assault survivors call Susan Avila-Smith, she advises them to keep their mouths shut while she works on getting them home.

"It breaks my heart to do that," she says, "but I want to get them out alive and that's my main goal."

Since she left the Army in 1995, Avila-Smith estimates that she has helped about 1,200 rape survivors separate from the U.S. Armed Forces and claim their Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits. As founder of Women Organizing Women, an online support group for survivors of military sexual trauma (MST)  read more »

Military groups disagree - Off-base troops entitled to standard equal to those on base, they say
By Rick Maze - Army Times

A decade-old policy for setting military housing allowance rates — which assumes virtually all enlisted personnel and junior officers will live in apartments and townhomes rather than single-family homes — is under fire from major military associations that are urging Congress to order a change.

The Defense Department policy used to set basic allowance for housing rates assumes that the only enlisted members requiring a single-family home are E-9s with dependents.  read more »

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (Jan. 23) - Soldiers' battlefield tours would be cut from 15 months to 12 months beginning Aug. 1, under a proposal being considered by the Army as part of an effort to reduce the stress on a force battered by more than six years at war.

The proposal, recommended by U.S. Army Forces Command, is being reviewed by senior Army and Pentagon leaders, and would be contingent on the changing needs for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  read more »

Soldier, You Are Not Alone!

Join Iraq Vets Against the War for a free concert for servicemembers on February 21st from 7pm to 11pm. Admission is free with a military ID. All others are $8 at the door. This is an all ages show at Tacoma's Hell's Kitchen, 3829 6th Ave in Tacoma.

Click here to download a flyer. The concert lineup includes:  read more »

This page is meant to provide basic information about GI Rights, as well as links to more extensive information about each topic. If you are in need of immediate help or have questions about how to apply what's written on this page to your own situation, please contact the GI Rights Hotline at (206) 789-2751 or toll free at (800) 394-9544. You can also contact a GI Rights counselor by sending an email to counselor@sdmcc.org

The GI Rights Hotline is a network of non-profit, non-governmental organizations that provides information to members of the military about discharges, grievance and complaint procedures, and other civil rights. All calls are free and confidential.  read more »